Rowan Helping Ministries will break ground for its new shelter and soup kitchen at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. The event will take place in the 200 block of North Long Street across the street from its present facility at 226 N. Long St. Parking will be available at surrounding businesses and on the street. The 200-300 blocks of North Long will be closed during the event. The public is invited to attend.
“Our current facility was designed to shelter 40 men but we now shelter anywhere between 55 and 75 men, women and children each night. We are using every available space to meet current sheltering needs. Our soup kitchen holds 60 guests and we are serving as many as 180 in one hour each day. The new facility will allow us to better meet the needs of our community. The new shelter will accommodate 60 men, 40 women and four families at any given time and the kitchen will seat 126 guests at comfortable, round tables,” says Kyna Foster, executive director of Rowan Helping Ministries.
Funding for construction of the new building has neared completion in the private phase. An ongoing campaign will provide the final construction dollars and operating funds for the facility and its programs. The existing building, which was built in 1989, will be renovated to more efficiently serve those needing the homelessness prevention services of Crisis Assistance Network, the food pantry and the clothing center.
Rowan Helping Ministries’ new facility, designed by Ramsay Burgin Smith Architects, uses many sustainable design practices in efforts to provide a highly energy efficient and environmentally friendly building. The building incorporates passive solar design elements to capture needed heat from the sun during winter months and to shade unwanted direct sun during the summer months. By providing a thermally efficient building constructed of highly durable materials, utilizing energy efficient heating, cooling, and lighting equipment, and by harvesting free on-site energy and daylight, this new facility will provide a highly functional, low-operating-cost solution for the next chapter of the services offered by Rowan Helping Ministries.
Construction will begin later this fall and will take approximately 18 months to complete.