Shepherd’s House seeking ‘Meal Train’ participants for new Bend shelter

(Update: Adding video, comment from Shepherd's House staff, Bend City Councilor Megan Perkins)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – For the first time, the Shepherd's House is running an overnight shelter during the summer.

That means it's providing more meals than normal.

Bend City Councilor Megan Perkins is just one of the many volunteers pitching in to help.

"Something that we can do as community is come together and provide meals for the guests that are staying here," Perkins told NewsChannel 21 on Monday.

The Shepherd's House is running a "meal train" for its low-barrier shelter on Northeast Second Street, part of a long-sought goal for another year-round shelter in Bend.

"We provide meals every day, twice a day,” Shepherd’s House Director of Development Dave Notari said. “We count on the community. We don't have a kitchen here, so we really look for the volunteers to support that."

Notari said this is the first time they've run another shelter in the summer.

Director of Emergency Services John Lodise added it's an unusual time to start the meal train for the community.

"People are used to by now, we've been doing shelters for years,” Lodise said. “Every November, we start up and folks' minds are geared toward, 'November is the time I can start to provide a meal.'"

The Shepherd's House set up a website to sign up for either takeaway breakfasts or evening dinners.

There's no requirement for how often you provide meals, but Perkins signed up to do Tuesday's breakfast and Saturday's dinner.

"It may sound overwhelming to provide dinner for 70 people,” Perkins said. “But first of all, that's what Costco is for."

Notari added, "Often times, for someone experiencing homelessness, the first step toward turning the corner is something simple like a meal."

Perkins is preparing Tuesday's breakfast bags with her children.

"They always want to come with me at drop-off, to kind of see the results of what we're doing,” she said. “They always like when people say, 'Thank you for dropping this off, we appreciated it so much.'"

You can follow the provided link to help: BendShelterFood.org

You can also make a monetary donation to support the meal service at: https://shepherdshouseministries.org/donate-general/

For more information, contact Ryan Olufson, volunteer coordinator, at ryano@shministries.org.