Mazon
MAZON Project Volunteer Sign-Ups for Sunday Dinners at HOUSING MATTERS Homeless Shelters
Welcome to the MAZON Project!
Temple Beth El has been providing meals to a local Homeless Shelter every Sunday since 1988. Please sign up to help continue this important tradition. It's a mitzvah! **(As of May 1, 2021, we will be providing Sunday dinners to 70 residents at the HOUSING MATTERS Shelters at 115 Coral St., on the 2nd & 4th Sundays of every month--rather than to 40 people every Sunday at the River Street Shelter that is closing on May 1st, at the same address.) To learn more about HOUSING MATTERS, check out their website here: https://housingmatterssc.org/about/our-mission/.
IMPORTANT CORONA VIRUS UPDATE:
Dear Magnificent MAZON Volunteers,
Please review the following MAZON Project Sunday meal delivery changes in place for the time being, as Corona Virus precautions:
1) As of May 1, 2021, The River Street Shelter will be closed. Instead, we will be providing meals to the Housing Matters Shelter at the same address at 115 Coral St., but located inside the gate in the 1st building on the right. FYI, that block of Coral Street is one-way only, toward River St. So access to the Housing Matters Shelter on Coral Street should be gained from Limekiln St., onto Coral Street in the one-way direction.
2) MAZON meals shall be delivered by notifying personnel at the Security Gate entrance to the HOUSING MATTERS Shelter at 115 Coral St., to request someone to come collect your food from your car at the gate or be directed to a parking space just inside the gate to the right, in front of the HOUSING MATTERS Shelter dining hall (i.e., to deliver food, we will no longer need to go inside the Shelter at all, nor come into direct contact with anyone).
3) Meals can now be prepared in the HOUSING MATTERS Shelter kitchen with advance notice, but we cannot stay and serve the food until COVID-19 precautions are lifted.
4) HOUSING MATTERS Phone #: (831) 458-6020. Contact MAZON Project co-coordiator, Robin Belkin ([email protected]; 831/476-9144; 251-7115), if you encounter any problems or wish to make special arrangements. If Robin's unavailable, Evyn Simpson is the HOUSING MATTERS Asst. Director of Programs, and Anthony Pignoli is the Kitchen Mgr. They can be reached by calling the HOUSING MATTERS Shelter (above). Only if you cannot reach them at that phone number, Anthony can be reached at: (831) 889-0059 or Evyn can be reached on her personal cell phone at: (530) 776-4936, if you need to make a special arrangement for early food drop-off, to cook in the Shelter kitchen, or other arrangements.
5) Per Robin's prior email, please take extra food preparation precautions:
• Follow all CDC guidelines to wash your cooking surfaces, implements & utensils, ingredients, and hands thoroughly with soap and hot water and dry them with paper towels or a dedicated towel (no shared towels) throughout the process of preparing this food.
• Don't cook if you are sick or are exposed to someone that is ill; but rather withdraw your name from the SignUpGenius page by clicking on: "Change My Sign-up," at the bottom of the narrative above the actual sign-up log.
If you know another MAZON volunteer that may be able to fill in for you, please notify them and ask them to sign up for your time slot once you've removed your name. Also, FYI, the SignUpGenius system should automatically notify me whenever someone changes their sign up, but you can always give me the heads up too, just to make sure.
6) Please check the MAZON SignUpGenius log regularly for cancelations so I don't always have to email the entire group whenever someone cancels.
7) Please sign up here whenever you can:
Thank you all very much!
Stay safe, take care, and be well!
- Robin
To participate, please choose a date on which to contribute a dish to our Sunday Dinner, on the 2nd & 4th Sundays of every month, at the HOUSING MATTERS Homeless Shelter. Please specify on the Sign Up List what you are going to provide so the Shelter can supplement the meal with any compatible leftovers they have.
Meals should be dropped off Sunday, between 2:00 - 4:00 p.m., at:
HOUSING MATTERS Shelter, 115 Coral St., Santa Cruz (just off Hwy 9)
Advance sign-up is required (below--scroll down).
• Please plan enough food for large helpings and some seconds--like you're cooking for 70 hungry teenagers. At Sunday dinner, many shelter residents haven't eaten all day but for a small breakfast.
• You may bring nutritious, home-cooked food with lots of fresh ingredients or purchase similar home-style cooked food, with lots of love. (No canned meals, please, e.g., chili or stew.) Please try to limit salt as many residents are on low-sodium diets.
• For Entrees, please pay attention to what anyone has signed up to bring already, and try to provide the same or at least a compatible dish, if possible, but it's not essential.
• All contributions are deeply appreciated, and for variety if desired, those who are able, may wish to consider providing something homemade other than lasagna or whole chicken (e.g., casseroles, stews--or with advance arrangements by emailing Robin--assemble your own: taco bar, burrito bar, baked potato bar, or BBQ on site kabobs or burgers with advance notice to the Shelter (email Robin well in advance) so they can have the BBQ's ready, etc.
• Meals should be dropped off between 2:00-4:00 pm as dinner is served at 5:30 pm. If you are contributing something that requires heating, please bring it early enough to be heated by 5:00 pm, so some can be packaged to go for those that don't eat in the dining room, and served to everyone else by 5:30 p.m. Please do not bring frozen food unless it can be heated by 5:00 p.m.
• To help strengthen the sense of community among us, MAZON volunteers are invited to arrive early to prepare their food in the shelter kitchen with advance notice (To do so, Email Robin, MAZON Co-Coordinator at [email protected] or call 831/476-9144). We will not be able to stay and serve dinner, and/or stay and eat with the Shelter residents again until COVID-19 precautions are lifted.
When you drop off food, please drive up to the front gate at the HOUSING MATTERS SHELTER at 115 Coral Street, and notify the personnel on duty that you are delivering Sunday dinner to the kitchen. They will either send someone to pick up your food at the entrance gate, or direct you to drive inside to a small parking area in front of the dining hall in the first building on the right (if a parking space is available), and someone will pick up your food there.
• If you cannot deliver your food between 2:00 and 4:00 pm, please contact one of the other MAZON Volunteers listed on that week's SignUp to help with your delivery, or contact MAZON Co-coordinator, Robin ([email protected]) well in advance, to arrange to drop off your food early--e.g., between 11 a.m., and noon (before lunch).
• Directions to 115 Coral Street (off Hwy 9):
Take River Street towards Felton – turn LEFT on Fern Street – turn LEFT on Limekiln – turn LEFT on Coral St.– turn RIGHT at the driveway before the multi-story Rebele Family Shelter. Stop at the wrought iron gate, tell the personnel on duty or push the call button, and announce that you are delivering Sunday dinner for the HOUSING MATTERS Shelter. (If nobody responds, please call the Shelter from your cell phone: (831) 458-6020.) Then, either they will send someone to pick up your food at the gate entrance or direct you to drive inside to the parking area in front of the HOUSING MATTERS dining hall in the first building on the right.
• Thank you very much for your generous contribution to Temple Beth El's MAZON Project!
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Temple Beth El Aptos |
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