Open Gate has remained open during this pandemic, but we’ve had to change how we are serving our homeless youth. We are unable to serve sit down meals as we used to, but we continue to serve nutritious meals on Sundays from 11:30 AM to 2:00 PM on a carry out/to-go basis. During the height of the lockdown when many of our youth were locked into shelters, we continued to serve about 25 meals each Sunday to the truly homeless. We are now averaging about 45 to-go meals served each of the last three or four Sundays. We are observing social distancing by limiting the number of youth allowed inside at a time, scanning them for fever with a non-contact thermometer prior to entry, and providing fresh socks and underwear in addition to the meal. No one is allowed to remain inside. While the clothing closet is not officially open, we do provide shirts and trousers where desperately needed. We also offer masks, hand sanitizer in small bottles, hygiene packs, and plenty of cold water bottles to help beat the heat.

We are offering these services to the youth with a minimum number of volunteers (4 to 5 max) to maximize social distancing protection for the volunteers and the participants. While we realize that many volunteers are being socially responsible and staying home, if you’d like to volunteer, we’d love to see you on a Sunday. We also occasionally have opportunities to volunteer on a Saturday or during the week when only volunteers would be present.