LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) — Groups across Louisville are working to make sure people experiencing homelessness have access to hot meals during winter weather that has disrupted city services and transportation.
Isaiah Parrish spent Monday morning drinking hot coffee and staying warm inside The Hope Village as snow and frigid temperatures gripped the area.
“The city stalls when the snow starts,” he said. “They stop running the buses. There’s not a lot going on. It’s not real comfortable to be homeless anymore, so being in a spot like this is integral to just survival at this point.”
Part of that survival includes access to hot meals. The Hope Village has partnered with Feed Louisville for years to provide food to people facing homelessness. On Monday, Stachelle Bussey, CEO of The Hope Village, was at the Feed Louisville kitchen packing meals and delivering them to those in need.
“Feed Louisville, during winter storms, during any kind of crisis, is one of my favorite places to hang out,” Bussey said. “We’ve been partners now for almost six years doing this work.”
Feed Louisville continues operations despite the weather challenges. The organization tracks meal needs and coordinates with partners to prepare and deliver food. Rhona Kamar, Feed Louisville’s executive director, said the nonprofit operated with reduced staff during the storm but maintained its commitment to serving the community.
“The work of Feed Louisville every day is emergency work,” she explained. “This is hunger relief work. Any day that a person is living on the streets, unhoused, is a crisis, so we are responding to that daily. When there are weather events like this, then it’s extra critical. Many places, like soup kitchens or emergency kitchens, shut down on days like this, so our street outreach teams go directly to the camps where people are.”
Bussey emphasized the importance of outreach groups and their work to keep people fed.
“Macro systems are huge, but these are the people who are using their own personal cards. These are the people who are using their own personal funds. These are the people who are running around the city. Everybody else is asleep. When people were snowed in, these are the people on the ground,” she said.
For Parrish, food access is more than basic nutrition.
“It’s instrumental to just being a functioning human being,” he said.
Both Feed Louisville and The Hope Village are seeking donations and volunteers.
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