DENVER (RNS) — On a cool morning in Denver, a 70-year-old Buddhist nun pedaled their electric tricycle beneath highway overpasses and along cracked bike paths, slowing as they approached tents tucked against concrete embankments or someone sleeping under a bridge.
The small trailer fastened to the trike carried bottled water, bagged lunches, socks, gloves, Narcan, tents and hand warmers. The cyclist, Kelsang Virya, who uses they/them pronouns, has become a familiar presence to many people living on Denver’s streets over the past five years. The nun — who helped found Mutual Aid Monday, which now feeds more than 400 vulnerable and unhoused people a week — scans the grittiest parts of the city for familiar faces.
“I think I know most people here,” Virya said after handing out supplies at a homeless encampment on the outskirts of Lakewood, where about 30 people who were gathered around tents and wearing winter jackets approached them for water and food, saying “ma’am” and thanking the nun profusely…