EVERETT — Nathan Fox is working on a lunch menu for 1,300 guests. Luanne Kunz is gathering shampoo, toothbrushes and other items to fill 1,300 backpacks. And Project Homeless Connect planners are sharing a wish list for the annual event that serves people in need.
This will be the seventh year for Project Homeless Connect, a one-day event scheduled for 9 a.m.-2 p.m. July 9 at Everett’s Evergreen Middle School. In 2014, about 1,300 people experiencing homelessness were helped with direct services.
Along with housing information and medical and dental help, clients will find hot meals and haircuts, vision screening and eyeglass vouchers, help with Social Security eligibility and veterans services, substance abuse assessments, pet care and much more. It’s all free.
Started in San Francisco in 2004, Project Homeless Connect spread to other places, including Everett, beginning in 2008. The goals are to give immediate help and also point the way to long-term access to resources.
This will be the second year the event will be at Evergreen Middle School, after several years at Cascade High School. “This was a great site for us last year. It has great capacity and good access. We’re excited to be back there,” said Sara Haner, United Way of Snohomish County’s communications and events manager.
Project Homeless Connect is largely paid for by a $40,000 donation from the Employees Community Fund of Boeing Puget Sound, Haner said. She said $10,000 of that was used to buy backpacks to be distributed to homeless people.
Still needed are more volunteers plus toiletry items to fill the 1,300 backpacks purchased with the Boeing group’s donation. “We definitely still need volunteers,” Haner said. “Last year, 258 staff from 84 programs and 268 volunteers made the event possible.”
Volunteers, who are asked to sign up with United Way of Snohomish County by July 3, are needed for registration, to guide people around the venue, serve meals, and provide other help.
Kunz, regional community affairs coordinator with YWCA Seattle-King-Snohomish, said her agency is working to gather toiletries. Needed items include travel-size or larger shampoo and conditioner, bars of soap and body wash, toothbrushes and toothpaste, washcloths and razors. Donations may be dropped at the Everett YWCA office on Broadway or the agency’s Pathways for Women shelter in Lynnwood.
At the Everett Gospel Mission Men’s Shelter, Fox is manager of the Feed Hope Kitchen, where about 16,000 meals are served each month. The kitchen offers a 15-week culinary training program to shelter residents and others willing to work and to learn skills needed for food service jobs. Men and women in that program, which started a year and a half ago, will make lunch for more than 1,300 people at Project Homeless Connect, Fox said.
On the menu will be spaghetti, Italian sausage or baked chicken breast, salad, garlic bread, mixed vegetables “and maybe or maybe not soup, depending on a donation,” Fox said.
Haner has been impressed by the respect shown to those being helped at Project Homeless Connect. “What strikes me about the meal, volunteers serve the hot food for the clients — it’s like a restaurant. They are seated by someone,” she said.
Collaborators include the Snohomish County Human Services Department, the county’s Homeless Policy Task Force, United Way of Snohomish County, the Snohomish Health District, the city of Everett, and many nonprofits.
Kunz will give out backpacks at Project Homeless Connect. She has seen that people come to the event from many walks of life. There are veterans, single parents of infants, elderly people, recent immigrants, and people who have lost homes and longtime employment.
“Everybody is on the same level for one day, whether they’re volunteering or the person needing services,” Kunz said.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.
How to help
Project Homeless Connect will be held 9 a.m.-2 p.m. July 9 at Evergreen Middle School, 7621 Beverly Lane, Everett. Volunteers needed. Information: Jessica Gaitan, United Way of Snohomish County, 425-374-5530 or email Jessica.Gaitan@uwsc.org
Register to volunteer by July 3 at: www.uwsc.org/phcsnoco.php
Toiletries (soap, washcloths, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoos, conditioners and razors) also needed. Drop items by July 6 at YWCA Pathways for Women shelter, 6027 208th St. SW, Lynnwood, or the Everett YWCA office, 3301 Broadway. Information: Luanne Kunz, 425-258-2766 ext. 150 or lkunz@ywcaworks.org
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