Community Soup Kitchen Helps Those In Need

While G.W. students enjoy their snow days off from classes, they remain hunkered down indoors, eating what remains of their fridge and freezer leftovers or trekking a short block or two to The Marvin Center. However, for many Washington D.C. residents, the recent weather has not brought what seems to be perpetual joy. For those who spend their nights sleeping on the streets, while roaming the neighborhood during the day looking for food, the snow has been a nightmare.

Sleeping outside in the cold, with swirling winds and piles of snow, is an experience no one wants to live through. However, for the homeless people of Foggy Bottom, this is their life.

Though the reality seems rather bleak, there is one place that offers them hope. Miriam’s Kitchen, a nondenominational soup kitchen, located on 24th and G, only one block off campus, offers help to those in desperate need. Providing services for over 4,000 men and women annually, Miriam’s provides a meal to the hungry, clothing to the underprivileged, along with mental health and addiction treatment.
Wednesday morning, this reporter, who had never heard of such a place, received an urgent email from a professor. He explained that there are homeless people in desperate need of dry men’s clothing and that anything that can be spared would be taken. Answering immediately to his call I gathered a few things and headed to the location.

On my way I walked with students such as Ryan Douglass and his roommate Travis Neuscheler. Both juniors, they too had never heard of Miriam’s Kitchen. However, upon reading an email sent to them by a friend, they realized what they had to do.


“It’s just brutal walking around,” Ryan explained, “and I really feel for any individual who has to sleep outside in this weather.”

Searching their room for old clothes, Ryan and Travis packed various items they no longer wore, either because they went out of fashion or they were too small to wear.

“I’ve never been there,” stated Travis. “It’s good to know there are places to go during times like this.”
Founded in 1983 by various religious organizations in the Foggy Bottom community, Miriam’s Kitchen has been run by full-time Executive Director Scott Schenkelberg for the last eight years. In my interview with him, he explained to me that his motivation comes through his passion for “social justice, helping those who are disadvantaged” through non-profit organizations.

Scott’s long-term goals for Miriam’s is to expand the organization and to continue to serve the needs of the chronically homeless, those who have been homeless for at least two years.

He hopes to spread the Kitchen’s message by utilizing a robust volunteer corps, word of mouth, and through social media outlets, such as Twitter and Facebook.

The more fortunate residents of this community, be they students, professors, or ordinary citizens, need to recognize the fact that there are desperate people out there. Even a shirt and a pair of socks can go a long way. After seeing the look on the faces of those in need, it’s clear that we need more people like Scott Schenkelberg and more places like Miriam’s Kitchen in this community and in this world. We need to help those in need, not ignore them. Give someone a chance, donate what you don’t wear and volunteer some time so that we can solve a problem you wouldn’t want to live through.