Barbecue set to raise money for homeless shelter – Daily Journal Online

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On Monday afternoon, EMAA Community Services Director Nicolle Hahn and Farmington OAKS Senior Nutrition Center Director Ursula Warren take a break from planning the next-door homeless shelter’s barbecue fundraiser set for Friday.
You’ve probably seen homeless people in the Parkland, or seen evidence of their subsistence living — tents under highway bridges or in wooded areas near parks, people with backpacks and plastic bags walking in early morning or late-night hours, cars that look well lived-in.
More than 750 students in Parkland school districts were listed as homeless between school years 2013-14 and 2019-20, according to numbers reported to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary education, with Farmington and North County districts accounting for more than half.
The Uplift Shelter, a homeless shelter located behind the former Mineral Area Regional Medical Center hospital and run by East Missouri Action Agency (EMAA), is intended to address the many challenges faced by those without a home — and it’s not just limited to finding permanent shelter.
“We are working to give complete, wraparound services to help people, rather than just finding them shelter for this temporary space and time,” said EMAA Community Services Program Director Nicolle Hahn. “We want to help the whole person, not just the housing problem. We help them find jobs, get driver’s licenses if they lost theirs, we help them access healthcare, we provide resources for substance abuse, we have even reconnected people with family members. We’re able to provide in-depth case management.”
The big task is mostly funded on a skin-tight budget by grants and donations, but the need is great and this Friday, EMAA hopes to raise at least $2,500 through an Uplift Shelter Barbecue. They’re taking pre-orders until 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
From 11 a.m.-2 p.m. on Friday at the Uplift Shelter parking lot, behind the old hospital on Wallace Road, volunteers and EMAA employees will be serving up $10 pork steaks, $7 hamburgers and $5 hot dogs, the plates served with baked beans, chips, a drink and a choice of the senior center’s famous cole slaw or potato salad. Large group pre-orders can be made until 5 p.m. on Tuesday by calling 573-431-5191, ext. 1117, messaging EMAA’s Facebook page or using a Google form. Delivery is available for orders of five or more. Modern Woodmen has offered to match up to $2,500 raised.
Ursula Warren, the director of the Farmington OAKS Senior Nutrition Center next to the homeless shelter, said the senior center will be making up the sides for the barbecue, and the cole slaw is a creamy one. “People love our cole slaw,” she said. “I’m not exaggerating, they really like it.”
Other area businesses are getting in on the action. In addition to Modern Woodmen, Prairie Farms’ David Parmeley will be firing up his smoker, Save-A-Lot is donating meat, Schnucks is donating buns, and many more businesses and volunteers are coming up with ways to make the barbecue a success.
Warren and Hahn said they’ve been impressed with the support shown to the shelter, and the relationship between the senior center and the homeless shelter has been a good one.
“If we have food left over, we don’t waste a scrap of it,” Warren said of the senior center. “I’ll send it over to the homeless shelter. And we have a lot of senior people who come over here for a nutritious meal, and it’s good to talk to them, make sure they’re getting what they need. It fills my heart to help people, and there are such good people who come here.”
Hahn said so many times, she’s seen instances where people who never thought they’d be without a home, are suddenly without jobs, or dealing with mounting medical debt, occurrences such as fire, flood or a mental health break, and they’re out on the street.
“It’s often said, they need to pull themselves up out of their circumstances, but it’s hard, when you’re sliding down into homelessness, to even get traction,” she said. “And it could just as easily be you or me. Very few people expected they’d find themselves without a home or a job or the means to get either.”
The Uplift Shelter for Better Living is located on Wallace Road next to the Farmington Senior Nutrition Center. The parking lot is where plates of pork steak, hamburgers and hot dogs will be served, along with beans, chips, a drink and choice of creamy cole slaw or potato salad.
According to the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, Missouri as of January 2020 had an estimated 6,527 people experiencing homelessness on any given day, as reported by Continuums of Care to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Of that, 704 were family households, 453 were veterans, 664 were unaccompanied young adults aged 18-24 and 1,090 were people who experienced chronic homelessness.
EMAA is planning a gala fundraiser for the Uplift Shelter on Oct. 15 at St. Paul Lutheran School in Farmington. Details are still being worked out.
Sarah Haas is the assistant editor for the Daily Journal. She can be reached at 573-518-3617 or [email protected].

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On Monday afternoon, EMAA Community Services Director Nicolle Hahn and Farmington OAKS Senior Nutrition Center Director Ursula Warren take a break from planning the next-door homeless shelter’s barbecue fundraiser set for Friday.
The Uplift Shelter for Better Living is located on Wallace Road next to the Farmington Senior Nutrition Center. The parking lot is where plates of pork steak, hamburgers and hot dogs will be served, along with beans, chips, a drink and choice of creamy cole slaw or potato salad.
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