Donations, Volunteers Increase Over Holidays, But Charities Say Need Is Year-Long
(CBS) -- This is the time of year many people tend to give more of their time and money to charities, but those charities will tell you the need is there all year long.
Franciscan Outreach shelters about 325 homeless men and women a night at shelters on the West Side. It also has a soup kitchen and a food pantry.
Executive director Ed Jacob says it would be nice if the increase in donations and volunteers that starts around Thanksgiving and runs through the end of the year, lasts well into the new year.
"That sort of concern is really heartwarming but at the same time, there are other times of the year when we run short of food, when we run short of volunteers and donations and things like that," he says.
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Jacob says that, if people want to volunteer at Franciscan Outreach on the West Side, they can do everything from helping to paint and rehab shelters to providing job counseling and GED tutoring.
Jacob says many people donate and/or want to volunteer to serve dinner to the homeless on Thanksgiving or Christmas at the Franciscan Outreach and he says that's great. But, he says, he—and likely other organizations that help the homeless –would like to see those efforts stretch into January and February and beyond.
Jacob says, "We work with individuals and helping them work on their GED skills…or learning English or learning job skills and things like that. So, there are opportunities throughout the year."
Besides two shelters and a soup kitchen on the West Side, Franciscan Outreach offers mail service to the homeless plus showers and laundry service for them.
