The snow and ice are disappearing now, and the temperatures are warmer, but for a week during the Great Snow of January 2024 people in need of shelter and more found it at an Oak Ridge church.
The warming center at Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church closed on Monday afternoon, exactly one week after it was set up by Tennessee Out-Reach Center for Homeless (TORCH), the church and volunteers. Volunteers Jeremy Wallace and Amanda Branche told The Oak Ridger four or five homeless people took advantage of the warming center each day and night, and thanks to donations, TORCH set up a mother and two children in a hotel, as the warming center was only for adults.
A TORCH email sent out Wednesday said 12 individuals were provided safe shelter and/or supplies, such as sleeping bags, blankets, coats, food, water and coffee.
In addition to people from the church, and the general community volunteering to staff the warming shelter, Oak Ridge churches donated food and other supplies, they said.
“It was insane how much food was donated,” Wallace said. So much food was donated, he and Branche said, that volunteers took some of it to a warming center in Knoxville.