WHAT WE DO
A "typical" day at Dorothy Day House
The first activity occurs in the shelter around 5am when the shelter volunteer
wakes up and turns on the coffee pot. Guests wake up at 5:30am and are out of the shelter shortly after 6am. The early departure ensures that both guests
and volunteers can get to work.
On weekends, breakfast is generally served at the kitchen
(see Weekend Breakfast Program for more information), but otherwise the
mornings are quiet.
Shortly after noon the kitchen crew arrives to prepare lunch.
At 3:15 the doors open and the meal is served. A complete hot meal
is served with salad and dessert.
Guests may take sandwich bags with them when they leave. We stop serving meals at 4:45pm and cleanup is usually finished by 5:30, at which time the kitchen crew leaves for the day.
During the winter months, the kitchen reopens around 6pm and guests can
get out of the cold for a few hours (see Shelter from the Cold).
At 9pm, guests gather outside the shelter. The shelter coordinator and
shelter volunteer count the guests and open the doors. Many times there are more than 16 guests seeking shelter. In that case,
we try to place the extra guests at the overflow shelter (during the winter
months) or Danbury city shelter. Sometimes guests need to
be turned away because of lack of available beds. The shelter has separate bathrooms for men
and women, and shower facilities. The shelter volunteer does a load of guest laundry before catching a few
hours of sleep.
|
