Outreach Workers Provide Support on the Street

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11.25.2009 --

This week, as we come together with our families and friends for meals, many of us think about how to help people on the streets.  It can be easy though to forget that hunger isn’t about food. It isn’t so much the meal that people on the streets are lacking, but the support network.

That’s where our street-outreach program First Helping comes in.

DC Central Kitchen is known for producing thousands of meals every day with recovered food, but the real magic lies in the way we use that food.  Inside the Kitchen, we use it as an opportunity for culinary job training.  Out on the streets, our outreach workers use breakfast as an opportunity to build supportive relationships with clients.

For the past year, Chris Reams has been working on our street outreach team, doing this every day. He works to support clients as they struggle toward the small but critical successes that will start them down the road to recovery.

Two months ago, he met a man named David who had developed a cocaine addiction and spent years living on the street, staying in shelters and abandoned buildings, and working part time jobs to fund his drug use.

At age 55, David was assaulted and robbed on the street, and the experience finally shook him enough to make the decision to change.

David entered a local short-term treatment program to take the first steps toward taking back his life. The odds were against him though. His years of drug use destroyed the supportive relationships he would have had, and meanwhile he had surrounded himself with negative influences.

The temptations to relapse were everywhere, and there were very few voices offering support.

Chris’s support was critical during this time. He became a trusted advocate for David, helping him get necessary paperwork, identification, and other necessities and checked in with him on a regular basis to help keep him accountable to his goal.

David persevered and completed the short-term treatment program. He is now entering a long-term program designed to help him return to a healthier lifestyle. Chris is staying engaged, and is working with him to plan his next steps and research his future options for supportive housing.