As temperatures began to plunge late in the afternoon on Thursday, St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 228 Spring St., announced that it would once again serve as a warming center for the homeless beginning at 5 p.m. today through noon on Sunday.
This is St. Luke's second time to open this season, the first being right before Christmas Day when Hot Springs experienced its first round of freezing temperatures.
The Rev. Sara Milford of St. Luke's told The Sentinel-Record that the church will have collapsible cots set up and ready for use, adding, "I know that everyone who wanted (a cot) last time had one, so I know there's at least 20 or 30 cots available, and there are also some old pews in the parish hall and we have blankets."
The church will serve a warm breakfast every morning and a warm dinner every night that the center is open. Snacks will also be served a couple of times throughout the day.
"It's mostly parishioners who donate the food. We do the warm dinner and breakfast, then snacks and drinks a couple of times, and that's mostly on donations. It's all donations just from parishioners and also people from the community," Milford said.
"Actually, the blankets that we have are from two years ago when they did the warming center; Crossgate Church donated a lot of blankets that they had. So churches know that we're open. When we opened before Christmas we had folks from First Baptist Church volunteering to help with dinner and just keeping it fast, because we have to have volunteers here the whole time."
Milford added that meals aren't just strictly for individuals who are staying the night in the warming center; anyone who needs a hot meal may stop and eat.
The church's doors are also open to accept donations of items such as blankets and coats.
"Whatever we have left at the end of the season we just take to Jackson House for them," Milford said. "And we do have a security officer here overnight with us when folks are here. They come and stay the night -- it's not an in-and-out thing -- to help prevent anything from happening."
Local on 01/06/2017