Martinsville-Henry County Warming Center volunteers help 30 people with sign in, meal preparation and offering other types of help
MARTINSVILLE, Virginia — The Jones family brought dinner to the Martinsville-Henry County Warming Center on Saturday night, and Jeff and Sybille Mansour were among the volunteers who helped people get in.
The food Volunteers cook dinner for 30 people at home and bring it to the center hot. When guests arrive, intake volunteers help them sign in, help serve the meal, and then talk to the guests or help out in some other way.
The main parts of Saturday’s meal were vegetable soup and baloney sandwiches. She said that Regina Jones had signed up to make the meal, and since her uncle Angelo Jones of Collinsville is such a good cook, she had him make the soup.
Tanisha and Angelo Jones were the first ones there. They were carrying two long, wide aluminum buffet trays with hot soup on them. The next person to come was Regina Jones, who brought the sandwiches and other snacks. It was the first time that the Jones family cooked the meals.
“He does it because he likes to help people. Tanisha Jones said of her husband, “He cooks all the time.” The couple said that it took about 3 hours to cook the soup.
Regina Jones said that she has been trying to do more to help other people lately, and that this was part of that.
Jeff Mansour, a former program officer at The Harvest Foundation, said that the Mansours, who live in Martinsville, have been volunteering at the center for a little over a month.
He said, “It’s been a very educational and rewarding experience for us.”
“This has taught us to be humble. It has also helped us understand the lives of people who don’t have the same opportunities or advantages as we do, either because of mental health problems, other health problems, addiction, or just because they face sometimes insurmountable financial problems.
“What we learned is that there are many reasons why people are homeless, and sometimes each person has a mix of those reasons.”
“I think based on the common understanding or stereotype of what a homeless person is, we had an idea that was, I guess, shattered by actual interactions with real people, by just talking to people and getting to know them and treating them as fellow creatures of God and understanding that many times it’s not their fault. It’s not up to them.”
Mansour said that it is important for a society and a Christian country to show their faith by “helping those who are most vulnerable.”
He said that some of the homeless are young people whose homes are so bad that they needed a safe place to stay for a few days until they could find something else. People who have been homeless for a long time may have mental health problems or drug problems. They have trouble getting to work or appointments because they don’t have a home address or a way to get there.
He also said that people who don’t know much about homelessness may talk about it without really understanding it. “Just pull yourself up by your bootstraps,” they may say, but if you don’t have any boots, you won’t be able to do that.
“I don’t want to be judgmental, but I think some of those arguments show selfishness, self-centeredness, and maybe even a bit of self-righteousness. And there but for the grace of God goes any one of us, because you never know what can happen to you.”
