Volunteer group redefines ‘tireless’
Imagine waking up at 3:30 a.m., seven days a week, for six years straight, to help homeless people. At 4:30 a.m., you arrive at The Salvation Army Harbor Light Shelter in Minneapolis to cook hot oatmeal and grits. Then at 5:30 a.m., you serve the breakfast to at least 100 homeless men and women. You finish by 7 a.m., then – on weekdays – leave to work eight or more hours at your day job.
An incredible group of volunteers has been doing just that since spring 2008. About 2,200 days have passed since the group served its first breakfast at Harbor Light, and they’ve missed only three mornings.
Granted, each of the nearly 30 volunteers doesn’t serve every single day. But most of them help out more than once a week. Together, they fill an important void: Hundreds of people who sleep inside Harbor Light’s two emergency shelters would otherwise go without breakfast. Although Harbor Light serves a free public dinner, the facility is only funded to serve breakfast and lunch to people enrolled in its rehabilitation programs.
“We love this volunteer group,” said Envoy Bill Miller, Harbor Light director. “They help us serve thousands of people. They’re one of the many groups, churches and businesses that help us not just during the Christmas season, but all year long.”
Wake-up call
Dave Simpson (pictured at top), owner of a print shop in Golden Valley, founded the volunteer group after discovering an alarming fact: homeless people have few breakfast options in Minneapolis – free or otherwise.
“Six or seven years ago, I was at the Basillica downtown and a guy was begging me for breakfast,” Simpson recalled. “Rather than give him money, I offered to buy the breakfast for him. But it took us 45 minutes to find a place. There wasn’t anything around where people could buy a couple eggs and toast.”
The incident planted a seed in Simpson to do more for homeless people. Soon, he joined a now-defunct volunteer group that served free breakfasts in Loring Park. But that still wasn’t enough – Simpson wanted to do even more.
“God had really put it on my heart to help homeless people,” he said. “Someone said if I really wanted to help, I should serve outside (Harbor Light).”
And so it began. A few days later, Simpson cooked a bucket of oatmeal inside his home and served it outside Harbor Light. Demand grew. Volunteers joined. Before Simpson knew it, the vision God gave him had become reality.
Through the years, Simpson’s efforts have inspired dozens of volunteers to join. Volunteer Stephen Jelinek, for example, helps out three mornings per week. He first got involved in January 2012 while battling depression; he wanted to do something positive to take his mind off things.
It worked.
“The Lord prescribed volunteering to cure my depression,” said Jelinek, a military veteran. “At first, I came down here every day for two months. The depression lifted off me – it was almost miraculous. The best cure for depression is to get up and do something for somebody else without expecting anything in return.”
Just do it
The volunteer group’s formal name is “2.4 Ministry,” with Simpson and most of the breakfast volunteers attending Grace Fellowship Church in Brooklyn Park. The pastor there has always told Simpson to take leaps of faith.
“He says if you think you’ve got something, try it,” Simpson explained. “I could have spent two years planning a meal program. But you can’t plan it. You just have to do it.”
Today, Grace Fellowship buys about 75 percent of the breakfast food, with additional funding from group members and businesses, including Kemps, which recently provided $1,000 worth of milk.
“That’s enough milk to last us nine months,” said Simpson, who volunteers every Tuesday and Saturday.
Simpson insists that he gets more out of helping homeless people than they do from the breakfasts he serves.
“They’re going through some really tough times, but their faith is so strong,” Simpson said. “They’re teaching me every day how to keep the faith and keep believing.”
Simpson was reluctant to share his story because he’s not boastful and wants all the glory to go to God. But he agreed that this story could inspire others to support or collaborate with The Salvation Army.
Be the person Simpson was hoping to inspire. Helping The Salvation Army change lives is easy: You can make a donation or find volunteer opportunities in your area.