For the fourth consecutive year, Embrace, a nonprofit organization that mobilizes college students to address San Diego community needs, will team up with corporate sponsors, college student volunteers and community members to host its annual “Embrace the Streets” event for San Diego’s homeless.
On Saturday, Nov. 17 from Noon to 2 p.m., hundreds of homeless civilians and veterans living on the streets of downtown, or in temporary housing, will receive blankets, clothing and prepared food from more than 100 college student volunteers from SDSU, UCSD and other two- and four-year institutions of higher learning in San Diego. The event will take place on the corner of 16th and Island Ave.
“This year’s event is already positioning itself to be bigger and better than years prior,” said Embrace Founder Sean Sheppard. “Since our first ‘Embrace the Streets’ event in 2009, college students have collected and disseminated tens of thousands of pounds of clothing and worked with our food sponsors to serve thousands of meals to our homeless civilians and veterans in need.”
Last year’s event alone collected and donated over 2000 pounds of clothing and bedding, in addition to handing out 600 meals to the homeless veterans and homeless civilians who attended. All left over food will be donated to the Veteran’s Village of San Diego.
The “Embrace the Streets” effort began with a week-long clothing, blanket and sheets drive, with a donation site at the North Love Library Walkway on San Diego State University’s campus Monday, Nov. 5 through Friday, Nov. 9.
As the main food sponsor for this year’s event, The San Diego Food Bank will donate all of the meat for the event, to then be prepared by Slow Cal BBQ Food Truck and Urban Eats Food Truck.
In 2011, San Diego City Councilmember Todd Gloria presented Embrace with a City Council Resolution and The 2010 effort warranted a City Council Resolution from Councilman Carl Demaio, a California Legislature Assembly Resolution from Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher and a Proclamation from the City of San Diego from Mayor Jerry Sanders.
Major sponsors for this year’s “Embrace the Streets” event are San Diego Gas and Electric and the San Diego Food Bank.
About Embrace For more information on Embrace and its programs, visit www.embrace1.org.
Founded in 2000, Embrace uses community service to bring diverse groups of people together to bring about social wellness in our society. The organization focuses on the utilization of college students and recent graduates to develop their leadership qualities and remedy community problems such as health disparities and homelessness on a volunteer basis. Founder Sean Sheppard’s ultimate goal is to bring about legislation that makes community service mandatory for all college students that attend state funded institutions of higher education.
Comments
About the Author
