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We are in need of bath towels for our shower program. Do you have any gently used towels that you can donate? We are open seven days a week from 8am to 4pm, and you can bring towels any time we are open. We run 20 showers a day for the homeless every day of the week, and our towels either need to be retired into cleaning rags or walk out the door because people need them on the street. Can you help us replenish our stock of towels?

A few months ago, Peggy Pacy reached out to us and expressed interest in bringing food to GMC. She has been such a supporter of our program, bringing not only sandwiches but also toiletries and clothing when we needed them. Everyone looks forward to when she comes in with her adorable dog, Dusty, and her tray of sandwiches!

I asked her to share with us her how she came to discover GMC and her experience providing sandwiches for our guests. We are so grateful to have friends like Peggy. Thank you, thank you, thank you! 

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I discovered GMC through my friends at the Homeless Children’s Play Time Project. I enjoy volunteering with the Play Time project, but my main role with them is in fundraising and community outreach.

I love to cook! I asked the folks at Play Time if they had a need for food delivery. They didn’t but they directed me to GMC.  As an independent producer I have a fair amount of control over my schedule so I chose Mondays, a day I can almost always start work after food delivery. My dear friend and neighbor covers Saturdays, and together we decided during the cold months to switch to warm burritos! More work and expense but they have been a huge hit. We also asked neighbors via our list serve to pitch in with supplies, and they did on occasion.

I sometimes ask neighbors to come over and share a bottle of wine while we make burritos. It becomes a party and everyone pitches in. When it is just me, I really enjoy it. I know that smiles, and conversations, and appreciation that will be part of delivery.

My favorite moment…. I  often bring my dog, Dusty. Lots of the guests like to pet her and feed her treats. One day as I was leaving someone asked me about her name. I explained that she is named after a famous English singer who was big in the 60s and 70’s. Some knew of Dusty Springfield and some didn’t. But it turns out they all knew one song. I explained that when Dusty gets nervous during thunder storms I sing her a Dusty Springfield song.  It was really cold out, but in about 30 seconds all of us were in the alley belting out the tune, badly….. but it was fun!  ” You don’t have to say you love me just be close at hand…. you don’t have to STAAAY forever I will understand….  a great moment of community.

Delivering meals has become a really important part of my life. When people thank me, I tell them that it is I who am grateful.

With the subject of mental illness in the news due to tragedies such as mass shootings, family members of people with mental illness are articles detailing how difficult and scary it can be, how they can be at a loss on how to act when a loved one is having a mental health crisis.

The Treatment Advocacy Center is dedicated to the timely and effective treatment of severe mental illness. They have just released a wonderful and easy-to-use app for smart phones to assist people during mental health crises– how to respond to someone who is having one, how to talk to 911 operators, vocabulary, and much more. It is a lot of information packed into such an accessible app.

We hope that you will help the Treatment Advocacy Center spread the word about their new app. You can click on this link to see the app and download it on your phone.

When we talk about mental illness, we often try to drive home the message that mental illness affects more than just the person who has it; families and friends suffer too. This article from the Washington Post helps paint a picture of how a mother worries about her son and is trying her best to help him.

Earlier this month ABC News published a story about James Brown, who, after spending three days in a psychiatric hospital in Nevada, was given a one-way bus ticket to California. In their story, ABC calls this practice “patient dumping,” a way for cities or states to rid themselves of homeless and/or the mentally ill by giving them one-way tickets to other cities. And though ABC recently released this story, the practice is not a new one. An Internet search for something along the lines of “shipping/sending homeless people away” will bring up stories and locations ranging from Hawaii to California to Texas.

Such a practice does nothing to end homelessness to help those with mental illnesses. It is a practice that solves nothing. We don’t believe that such a practice occurs in DC, though we do help people buy one-way bus tickets to places as far away as California, but only after verifying that they have a place to live there. Most of the time, they are returning to their families, and we speak with them on the phone to make sure that they are willing to reunite with and house our client. We hope that the practice of sending people away to other cities or states in order to be rid of them ends; helping the homeless is everyone’s responsibility.