This is a letter I sent out to everyone regarding Fill-A-Belly and some crazy things that went down while we were gone. I’m working on more Africa blogs and have some great stories of our time there that I can’t wait to tell, but getting this information out today and telling the truth about what’s going on in Carlsbad is super important…
As most of you have realized FAB, our weekly
relational dinner for the homeless in Carlsbad, has undergone some
changes lately. Get ready for it, here is the whole story of what’s
going on, our plan for this week, and how we NEED YOU to get involved
and be part of the solution.
The day before Molly and I left
for Africa we received our non-profit status from the state of CA.
After a year of working towards this it felt amazing for Fill-A-Belly
to be recognized as official!
Then, about a week ago, while we
were still overseas, we got an e-mail from St. Michaels our host
church, who has been a wonderful partner over the last year and a half.
For the last few months the police have received complaints about the
homeless in the downtown Carlsbad area and those complaints have
reached the City Council. While we were gone the police and a
representative of the City of Carlsbad’s department of code enforcement
met with leadership from St. Michaels. The church was told that they
were not zoned to feed the homeless and that if they applied for a
permit to feed the homeless they would not be given one. They were also
told that if Fill-A-Belly happened at St. Michaels for even one more
week they would incur a hefty fine.
The way this was done is
frustrating for many reasons, the largest of which is that we weren’t
allowed to have a voice represent Fill-A-Belly or share the great
things that are coming out of our Tuesday night meals. We weren’t given
an opportunity to try and apply for the correct permits and be
completely above board with FAB. It seems that we have been blamed for
a large variety of issues surrounding the homeless in Carlsbad, some of
which are are our responsibility and some of which have nothing to do
with our outreach. We desire to be in good standing with the city and
to work with them in what we are doing, but in this case we were not
given that chance.
How do we respond and where do we go from
here? We want to respond with grace and hopefully work with the city,
while not letting this stop the great things that are being done at
Fill-A-Belly. There has obviously been a lack of education and good
publicity about FAB in Carlsbad. We want to do something about that and
we need everyone who has been involved to help. We need your stories
about FAB, how it’s changed you and the changes you have seen in our
guests. You can e-mail them to [email protected], you can post them
on our Facebook Group, we would love for you to video them, post them
on youtube and e-mail us the link.
We also need you to spread
the word about what is happening. Forward this e-mail on to all your
friends, invite people to our Facebook group. During the last two years
we have had over 1,000 people help out at FAB and we need every one of
those people to help with this campaign. After we have gathered that
information we hope to go to the city and work with them in finding a
solution for Fill-A-Belly. During this time we also hope to get some
media awareness that will highlight what we are truly about!
Where
do we go from here? We need everyone’s help to keep Fill-A-Belly
running! We have chosen to go potluck style in parks for at least the
next month. Today only we are going to take a break in Carlsbad, but we
will still be feeding at Cottonwood Creek Park in Encinitas. For more
information about that site check out our web site www.fillabelly.org.
We don’t have a kitchen so we need about 12 volunteers to bring food
and other items to Encinitas tonight. This is it. If people don’t bring
food we don’t have a back up plan.
Here is a list of what’s needed, if you can bring any of this e-mail me by 2 pm today at [email protected].
3 people to bring a large pot of Chili — enough to feed 20 people.
4 people to bring salads
3 people to bring desserts
1 person to bring bowls and spoons for 60
1 person to bring cheese and sour cream
Next
week on August 10th we will be doing a similar potluck style meal for
both Carlsbad and Encinitas. In Carlsbad we have chosen to meet at
Holiday Park under the gazebo off Chestnut Street and Pio Pico. I’ll be
sending out an e-mail so people can sign up to bring parts of the meal.
We will need everyone to spread the word to our guests that
Fill-A-Belly will be at 7 pm next Tuesday at Holiday Park. During this
next month we will need a lot of help from those who can cook! As
always we will still be accepting cash and check donations, and those
donations will be used to help offset the cost of the main courses so
we can make sure to have enough food.
Fill-A-Belly is going to
keep pressing on in Carlsbad, Encinitas and soon in a variety of other
locations! We will come out of this trial with more strength and unity
then ever before!!!
Thanks for being a part of making Fill-A-Belly great!
Sincerely,
Morgan and Molly McKeown
