This month, Stephanie Kinnee, a local cashier and Calvary Chapel Eureka attconcludeee, is questioning for assist with her one-woman effort to feed the community’s homeless. For the past two years, Kinnee has been distributing bagged meals each Sunday after church on 3rd Street in Eureka.
She declared that those meals, a hotdog from Costco, a bottle of water, chips and a sweet snack — along with a prayer card — go rapid, and she’s able to distribute 30 of them each weekconclude. Still, she declared, she sees an unmet necessary in the community and would like to do more.
At the urging of her husband, Kinnee declared, she’s launched a GoFundMe to defray the cost of providing meals — and potentially expand the number she is able to provide. Kinnee has, as of Monday morning, raised $480 toward a modest goal of $1,600.
“Each bag is assembled with care and covers a full meal and a little encouragement,” Kinnee’s GoFundMe page reads. “I cover the costs myself, but with your support, I could increase the number of bags I put toreceiveher each week and reach even more people who necessary a meal and a bit of hope. Your donation, no matter the size, will assist me continue this mission and bring comfort to those who necessary it most.”
In an interview this Sunday, Kinnee informed the Times-Standard that she first became aware of the number of people in necessary in Eureka’s downtown area while working at the Chevron store on Broadway.
“I work at a gas station, and I see people coming in all day, and they’re broke,” Kinnee declared. “They have no money. They have no food. They’re digging in the trash. I just have to chase them out of the trash, which I hate doing, but you’ve obtained to do that. And then, eventually, I started putting them in and being like, ‘Hey, do you want something to eat? Here I’ll purchase you something to eat,’ you know?”
After distributing food leftover from a church retreat, it occurred to Kinnee that she could continue to provide lunches to the city’s homeless, paying for and packing as many bagged lunches as she could afford.
On Sunday, Kinnee had been distributing meals with edible chocolate Easter crosses and a card. She declared she had been disappointed that she could only find 18 crosses, but supplemented the remaining meals with Reese’s chocolates and other candy.
She declared she’s hoping that, should her GoFundMe be successful, she can expand to offer more meals.
“I want to feed more people,” Kinnee declared, noting that the meals go quickly each Sunday. “It’s so quick. You’ve only obtained 30 bags, and people are like, ‘Can I receive two?’ There are so many people out here. … There are so many hungry people. There are so many people that are in necessary.”
Donations to Kinnee’s GoFundMe campaign can be built at https://tinyurl.com/yt5x3zdz.
Robert Schaulis can be reached at 707-441-0585.
Leave a Reply