In conjunction with the Sept. 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance, World Trade Center Utah and UServeUtah spent the day feeding the homeless community at the St. Vincent de Paul Dining Hall and cleaning the Weigand Homeless Resource Center. Both the dining hall and the resource center are run by Catholic Community Services.
“Serving our communities and helping those in need is a great way to honor the victims and heroes of Sept. 11,” said Derek B. Miller, president and CEO of WTC Utah. “We encourage all Utahns to contribute their time and funds to a cause close to their hearts this week. Through service we can build a stronger Utah and a more unified country.”
A group of 50 volunteers from 10 organizations joined WTC Utah and UServeUtah at the dining hall and resource center to serve the homeless population. Throughout the day, the group served 360 meals, prepared food for 1,200 sack lunches, installed 80 shelves, organized three donation rooms and scraped rust off of the Catholic Community Services fence so it can be painted later this week.
“September 11th is a day of history, emotion, and reflection,” said LaDawn Stoddard, director of UServeUtah. “It is also a National Day of Service that provides everyone an opportunity to act on the shared belief that by serving together we can make our country stronger.”
On average, Catholic Community Services feeds about 420 people for lunch and upwards of 500 people for dinner each day. The CCS resource center, open daily, has showers and restrooms available for use. It also provides a dozen other services to meet the needs of the homeless community including laundry, counseling, job seeker assistance and a library. The services at the resource center, located near the Road Home, are available for anyone to use.
Lt. Governor Spencer Cox and Utah Speaker of the House Greg Hughes joined the volunteers to serve lunch in the dining hall.
“I had an extremely impactful afternoon serving lunch to the homeless population at the St. Vincent de Paul Dining Hall,” said Speaker Hughes. “What I noticed was every person and every story is different.”
“It was an incredible learning experience to talk to people, hear their stories and serve those in the community who are the most vulnerable,” said Lt. Governor Cox. “The amazing thing about Utahns is that we volunteer. Ninety-five percent of the people that work at St. Vincent’s are volunteers.”
Those interested in volunteering with Catholic Community Services can visit www.ccsutah.org. The organization currently needs refugee mentors, meal service assistance and resource center volunteers.
“Volunteers are the core of what we do,” said Monica Rich, volunteer coordinator for Homeless Services at Catholic Community Services. “The direct effect they have is very important. They touch the lives of a lot of people.”
Utahns looking for opportunities to serve this week as part of the Sept. 11 Day of Service and Remembrance can visit userve.utah.gov/911-day-
