Many people coming to Recovery Café daily for to-go meals and masks have shared that they feel completely abandoned and alone. The fairly brief exchange of two meals and a mask is often the only hopeful interaction they have in a day. Housing resources are incredibly tight with shelters (understandably so) either closed to new people or requiring a clean COVID-19 test to access services. Going to the bathroom in a safe place is difficult, and so many of the resources that were once available are currently inaccessible. For those without phones or a place to charge it, the barriers are even more profound. It is a lonely, scary time.
To address this reality and to relay the critical message to our community—You Are Loved, Your Life Matters—Recovery Café hosted our first Resource Connection Day at South Lake Union on May 27th, providing needed support for our vulnerable community members. Staff and volunteers handed out 168 to-go meals, as well as homemade face masks, reusable bags, socks, menstrual products, small hand sanitizer bottles, personal hygiene kits, COVID-19 education/information (there is a lot of misinformation out there), resource connection help (including how to connect with a free cell phone), freshly brewed coffee, and homemade cookies and notes of encouragement donated by volunteers. We were grateful to partner with Cornish College of the Arts for the use of their parking lot, the King County nurses who provided free Hepatitis A vaccines and information, and the Mobile Medical Van for basic medical care. Thank you to all our amazing partners and volunteers for providing needed supplies, care, and the Recovery Café loving spirit to make this day a success!
