Comments about ‘Program helps families make a new start’

What a wonderful idea -- every church in the valley should do this! Thanks for this information -- we enjoy your column.

Think what would happen if every Mormon wardhouse opened its doors to just one family. It's a shame that so many wardhouses sit empty for most of the week.

April, though the LDS church does not open their doors for guests, they do supply all the breakfast and lunch food for each week, at every church. There are also certain wards that participate by volunteering at a local hosting church. The nice thing of the program is that it bridges religous divides and people work together as simply "people" who are helping those less fortunate than themselves.

The LDS Church does a huge part in making Family Promise work by supplying breakfast and lunch foods. Cereals, fruit, bread, etc. which is not used up one week gets moved on to the next church for the coming week.

By the time all the needed time slots are filled to take care of guests for a week,a participating church needs to supply over 60 volunteers each of the 3-5 times that church hosts Family Promise guests each year. Mormon wards are small, and it would be hard for them to come up with that kind of manpower on an ongoing basis. What they do for Family Promise is tremendously valuable.

Anabel Greenlee
Family Promise volunteer from All Saints Episcopal Church

I am the Family Promise Co-Ordinator for South Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, where Tiha and David and their children...and three other families...were staying last week. They were honored guests, and it is our pleasure to serve them and share our church home and community with Family Promise guests whenever we have the opportunity. There are at present 22 hosting churches, as well as nine other volunteer assistance churches, including several LDS ward and stake houses, who are part of the program and send individual volunteers, meals and other resources to meet the needs of our guests. The LDS Church is very helpful. If it were not for the Bishop's Storehouse, we could not feed our clients. I believe the most wonderful part of Family Promise is that it puts a face on the person who needs help, and lets us all know that not only do we get to assist a fellow human being, but that it is entirely possible that that person could have been ourselves. There is no such entity as "The Homeless". These are our friends and neighbors. I appreciate their courage and grace in letting us assist them. I have been there.