Meal Train® for 2025-26 St. John's Ministries Men's Shelter Dinners

Special Instructions

Notes and Reminders for Men’s Shelter You are signing up to provide and serve a meal at the Men’s Shelter, located at 411 St. John St. Meal teams will serve the meal also, but if that is not possible for your group, please let us know in advance and we will secure other volunteers for that. Note: If you are looking to serve a meal that WE provide, reach out directly to Brooke to discuss a "Serving with Heart" meal. Meal Preparation: Meals must be cooked outside of the shelter and brought in ready to serve. Our operating agreement does not allow us to cook at the shelter. Food should be brought in containers that you can take back home with you or are disposable. The number of portions needed will fluctuate during the season, but you will find the current need in this section. Bringing the Meal in: Use the entry closest the kitchen. You can access the door by pulling in the rectory driveway off St. John’s Street. The entry door has a buzzer outside – ring and someone will let you in. Pull in and unload, then please move your vehicle to the parking lot on the other side of the building (accessible from the 400 block of S Jefferson St). **During meal service, we require that you park in our lot off S Jefferson St or on the street, NOT in the church's lot. We desire to be good neighbors to the church, and that means honoring their request not to park in their lot. Thank you for your compliance with this! Serving the Meal: The shelter opens and starts receiving guests at 5:00pm. Please plan on arriving with your food no later than 5:30 to set up. Serving runs 5:45-7:15pm. 4-6 people is a good-sized group for the shelter’s kitchen space. Please plan on serving until 7:15pm and clean up after yourselves. You may be asked to put together any meals needed by people coming in late. Alternately, hospitality volunteers may be able to assist with this. **We ask that at least one person from your group, if not all, stays for the full serving time through 7:15pm. We want consistency for our guests, and this means always having the meal window open the full duration. We ask that Meal Team members wear disposable gloves while serving and/or touching food. Besides the meal we ask you to bring: • 3-4 gallons of milk • 2-3 gallons of juice or a drink • paper plates, cups, and bowls- whatever is needed for your meal **optional- plastic utensils We do have a supply of these items, but we use a lot, so your support is very appreciated! The shelter staff may ask you to make up some extra dinner plates for guests coming late from work- be sure to ask the Lead Volunteer or staff shift lead how many they want! Thank you for your willingness to share your love through your gift of cooking with our brothers and sisters at the Shelter. The love you share through this ministry sets the tone for our work – it communicates in a tangible way that every person is important and cared for at St. John’s. Thank you for the blessing you are to all of us.