My Nonprofit Reviews

We signed up for the Thanksgiving Basket being offered through the Union Gospel Mission because our little family of four including our 2 toddlers, have been struggling recently to make ends meet. I didn't expect what we got and how many people they served the day we went to pick it up. There were over 500 people there and the quality of the food was better than expected. Usually, when getting any kind of food baskets through them or any other food box providers in town, we would end up with spoiled food and we couldn't feed it to ourselves or our children because it would have made us sick and possibly food poisoned us. But, this time was VERY different. We received a nice big turkey and apple pie and even ice cream to go with the pie. We also received stuffing and macaroni for sides as well as mashed potatoes. We were also pleasantly surprised to find some canned goods such as beef stew that we could feed our family for the next few days until Thanksgiving. We plan on making this Thanksgiving feast last at least a few days. It's a blessing that we hope will get us through until the first of December when we will again have money to get some food stocked in the house. We really appreciated the help with this Thanksgiving feast provided by the Union Gospel Mission. They also provide services to local men and women seeking shelter for a night. The women can only stay for 30 days which I think is unfair compared to letting the men stay as many nights as they want. Although, the setup for the women is much better for the men as far as sleeping arrangements go. The women get to share a room with 4 women and a bathroom. There are several rooms. The men have a mat, usually a very thin mat that they sleep on the floor with and a tiny blanket. But at least they are in out of the weather and warm. The Mission does require the residents and those coming in only to eat meals to attend church services before. And the women are not permitted to speak to the men in any way if they are single. Only married couples are allowed to communicate with each other. There are a few men who work in the kitchen that I've noticed are very mean towards some of the people that come through. I've seen them berate them and humiliate them in front of everyone for no reason. But, if you can ignore the indecent treatment and the attitude they use with some of the people (the people who run it tend to take a holier than thou stance and they really let people have it on religious issues and what they think is right) then the place is a nice place to go when you're in need of help. Thankfully, at the moment, we have a nice place to live and for the most part plenty of food to eat. We only need fill ins once in a while. So, we don't have to deal as much with the religious prejudice of the place. Also, we have a local Salvation Army which does a good job in some areas, but again, they don't seem to be as well run as other Salvation Armies I've come across.

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