Homeless people and volunteers are protesting against a decision by the
Champaign, Illinois, Catholic Worker to cancel its Sunday lunch in
order to give house residentsa break.
Catholic Worker House steering committee member Leigh Estabrook said the committee voted three weeks ago to stop serving lunches on Sundays beginning on June 21, the News Gazette reports.
The house will continue to serve meals for about 120 homeless and low-income people from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Mondays through Saturdays.
"We serve a meal with plenty of calories to get people through the day," Estabrook said.
Estabrook said there were two reasons why the steering committee decided to stop serving Sunday lunches.
"The head of the Sunday cooking crew said she was going to retire, so this was a good opportunity to make a change," Estabrook said.
But Estabrook added the committee was making the change as a courtesy to 19 people - mostly women and children - who live in the two houses.
"There is a tension between 120 people, mostly men, who come for the lunches and the women and children who live here," Estabrook said. "Most of the time the women and children either go upstairs during the meal or leave the house. We wanted to have one day a week the women and children could stay at home."
Meanwhile, about 25 volunteers and homeless people marched in protest in front of the house during the lunch hour on Sunday.
"I'm upset the homeless and people with low incomes no longer have a place to eat on Sundays," said Andy Sofranko, who has been volunteering at the Catholic Worker House for six years.
"There was a lot of yelling and shouting today," Sofranko said. "A lot of the old-time regulars who go in to eat every day were shouting."
Sofranko said he didn't think it was fair to force 120 people to go without meals on Sundays for the sake of a few dozen people living in the house.
"A lot of us volunteers have come here to work," Sofranko said. "This whole controversy seems to me to be kind of silly. We have a refrigerator full of food, and they won't let us in to serve the people."
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Catholic Worker House's meal reduction angers recipients (News Gazette)
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