Open Shelter

The Open Shelter Inc., is a center supporting the homeless and marginally housed citizens.  It was established by it’s founders, Kent and Mary Beitel in 1983.  In January 2022,  Open Shelter, Inc. moved into a brand new facility at 1037 Parsons Avenue, Columbus, OH 43206.  Many Catholic churches, other denominational churches and social groups help the Open Shelter by donating their efforts to prepare lunch  for their guests 20+ days a month.

WHO ARE WE/ WHAT DO WE DO:
We are the Our Lady of Peace Open Shelter Support Group. Parishioners have supported this center since 1986 under the direction of wonderful founding member and parishioner, Josephine Viles. We are a group of 30-40 parish individuals and families.

WHEN DO WE HELP:
On the SECOND THURSDAY OF EACH MONTH , the OLP Open Shelter Support Group serves LUNCH 10:30-12:00  to 110-125 men, women and children in their new facility. In November we collect frozen turkeys for Thanksgiving food baskets. In the Springtime,  we put together Easter baskets for the children.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES:
We are always looking for new members to join our group.

The lunch  menu is the same for it month.
Beef and turkey Manwich/Sloopy Joe sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, a wide selection of side salads like homemade potato, pasta, green, slaw etc.
individual bags of snack chips, fresh fruit and vegetables a wonderful selection of desserts.
Bonus item examples are jars of variety of pickles, black and green olives, banana peppers, grated cheese, sour cream and coffee supplies.

Our team members shop, prepare/bake items from the set menu, box it up and deliver it to the OLP parking lot on the morning of lunch.  Ten team members  drive all the food downtown to the Open Shelter facility. There we  unpack, organize, set up and serve our LUNCH cafeteria-style to our guests.

HOW DO WE ORGANIZE:  A master sign-up list with monthly updates, is emailed to all individuals who have signed up on the OLP Open Shelter group  FLOCKNOTE site. You can select which items in the pre-set menu you wish to supply.  You can offer to be a driver and worker downtown. There are opportunities to help for all volunteers. Those that don’t want to cook, can purchase the non-perishable grocery items. Other members make donations to the fund to buy bonus items like those listed above.

We have individuals/families that help us each month, every quarter or a couple of times a year.  Our generous parishioners help supply the goodies for our Easter baskets project each Spring. Everyone is welcome to join our team!