BALTIMORE — Donika Mosley is a mother of five. A congenital heart defect and debilitating heart attack at age 27 left her unable to work.
When her husband entered rehab earlier this year, the family lost everything. After a week on the streets, they ended up here, at Sarah’s Hope Family Shelter in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood.
“They have a lot of programs here for you to help yourself, for you to learn,” she says. “They feed you every day. You have heating, cooling in your room. It’s safe, it’s very clean.”
WATCH: Family shelters ask community's help to feed children after school
One of the things Donika loves most about Sarah’s Hope is its afterschool program, where they offer tutoring and a snack.
“My girls love the afterschool program,” she says. “Like it just gives the kids something to look forward to after school. Because, you know, being in a shelter can be very difficult. [The afterschool program] is an ultimate, ultimate gift and blessing to me.”
More than 200 children are currently living at three St. Vincent de Paul family shelters, including 80 at Sarah’s Hope, 81 at Eastside Shelter in Rosedale, and 60 at Hanna Moore Family Shelter in Reisterstown.
Nia Garrett, assistant director at Sarah’s Hope, showed us the multipurpose room where the children do their homework and get fed.
“This is a staple room here in our community,” Nia says. “When children first come into this space, they get signed in, they have their snack, and then we start homework assistance and activities to wind down, and then their parents come get them in the evening.”
These provisions make sure the children here don’t go hungry after school.
“Some of the parents may not have the means to get their children afterschool snacks,” Nia says. “They come to this space to get that additional nourishment that they need.”
However, those food supplies are running low.
St. Vincent de Paul urgently needs individually packaged snacks for the family shelters: juice boxes, fruit cups, peanut butter or cheese crackers, trail mix, assorted chips, fruit snacks, applesauce and granola bars.
Items can be delivered to these locations daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.:
Sarah’s Hope, 1114 N. Mount Street, Baltimore; Hannah More, 12035 Reisterstown Road, Reisterstown; Eastside Shelter, 9150 Franklin Square Drive, Rosedale.
Financial donations may be made online here.
