Grate Patrol
Grate Patrol Delivering Breakfast: Click to Enlarge (Photo: Elmer Romero)Grate Patrol — You’ll Be Fed, Too. Every Saturday and Sunday morning, two cars drive out of Foggy Bottom, carrying 189 healthy breakfasts for people living on the streets of Washington DC. On the days when the soup kitchens are closed, we deliver care and encouragement to the neediest members of our community. Grate Patrol is a mission unique to Saint Paul’s Parish that has provided uninterrupted weekend breakfast distribution to the homeless for 29 years. Grate Patrol serves Foggy Bottom between Georgetown and the Canadian Embassy near the National Gallery of Art. In cold weather, many of the people whom we serve sleep outside on heating grates, hence the name of the program. Grate Patrol begain in late 1981, when there was as yet no Miriam’s Kitchen, no Georgetown Ministry Center, no Salvation Army Grate Patrol, and no Fannie Mae Help for the Homeless Walkathon. All these now-familiar programs lay in the future. On Christ the King Sunday, November 22, Saint Paul’s energetic and popular curate, Father Robert F. Waggener, galvanized the parish with a powerful sermon based on the Gospel from Matthew 25, “Lord, when did we see Thee hungry?” The sermon resulted in a well-attended and enthusiastic meeting that established the Grate Patrol as a formal, recognized element of St. Paul’s Hunger Committee. With sixteen parishioners each committing themselves for service one night a week and several others acting as substitutes, the Committee began a well-staffed patrol in early December, bringing hot soup or stew to people on the Virginia Avenue grates. At the same time two parishioners who faithfully attended the daily 7:00 am Mass started a morning patrol. Every day throughout the winter before coming to Mass, they took breakfasts of tea, bread, and fruit to people of the street. Read more about the history of Grate Patrol in the June 2009 issue of The Epistle.
Grate Patrol needs volunteers in three areas:
- Food Preparation: Six to twelve volunteers meet every Friday at 2:30 p.m. in the Dining Hall to make almost 400 sandwiches and assemble meal bags. This is a great way to make new friends in the parish and help the homeless community at the same time. Contact Lucky Ajuiyitsi (akpoyoma@hotmail.com).
- Food Delivery: At 5:30 a.m. each Saturday and Sunday, four or more volunteers meet at the church, load two cars with coffee and breakfasts and distribute meals along specific routes. Delivery takes about 2 hours. Volunteers follow specific routes with an experienced “Patroller” to deliver meals to people sleeping in parks and doorways. Again, this is a terrific means of getting to know fellow parishioners as well as our friends on the street. Contact Glenn Marsh (Marsh_Glenn@emc.com).
- Bag Set-up is on every Thursday or Friday of the month at about 2 p.m. This can be done at one’s convenience during the week preceding the Friday. It takes 2-3 hours to stand up 379 paper bags and drop sugar, creamer, salt packets, etc. in each one. It’s a great time to meditate! Contact Tina Mallett (202-965-9324 or tmallett@si.edu).
Contact Tina Mallett with overall issues or questions (202-965-9324 or tmallett@si.edu).
See below for resources for Grate Patrol volunteers.
