Expand<\/a><\/p>\nCode Blue is declared when the temperature and wind chill are expected to fall below 20 degrees. The Weston Field House shelter at 982 Providence Road opens to allow people to stay out of the dangerous cold overnight. Because last weekend\u2019s storm made travel between shelters impossible, the St. Anthony\u2019s Haven and Weston Field House shelters stayed open into Monday.<\/p>\n
The process of declaring Code Blue begins with the city monitoring the National Weather Service, said Scranton Fire Chief and Emergency Management Coordinator John Judge. Scranton\u2019s threshold for Code Blue declarations is similar to Lackawanna County\u2019s, so the city coordinates with the county\u2019s emergency management and communications director and the Scranton Area Community Foundation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know the days that (the Code Blue shelter) is going to be open so that Catholic Social Services can staff it, and CIC is aware that it\u2019s going to be up and running for that night,\u201d said Judge. \u201cSo, everybody\u2019s made aware, and internally in the city, we make sure that the police and fire departments are aware as well in case they run into anybody out in the street suffering from the effects of the cold temperatures and we can get them to Weston Field or St. Anthony\u2019s Haven if they\u2019re not at capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge and other agency supervisors collaborate to keep Code Blue shelters operating. Last weekend was a challenge, with the extra hours the shelters stayed open, but they all said things went smoothly and attributed the success to their collaborative effort. Judge said this winter has been particularly difficult.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been doing it now for the last six years. I think this year is probably, out of the last six, has definitely been the coldest that we\u2019ve dealt with. I think as of today, since Dec. 1, I think we\u2019ve only had 11 days that we did not declare Code Blue because of the temperature thresholds,\u201d Judge said.<\/p>\n
Weston Field House served a total of 582 people during Code Blue nights in December, said Jessica Spangenberg, supervisor for area shelters. St. Anthony\u2019s served 555.<\/p>\n
Code Blue shelters will remain open even if funding dries up, said Joe Mahoney, CEO of Catholic Social Services, which operates the Weston Field House shelter.<\/p>\n
\u201cEither way, if we run out of money, I\u2019ll have to explain that to my board, but you know, it\u2019s going to stay open,\u201d Mahoney said. \u201cWe\u2019re on the hook. We promised. \u2026 These people might freeze to death if we don\u2019t keep our word, right? There are real repercussions for folks. It\u2019s not something that happened out of the blue, no pun intended, but this was a strategy. There was a larger committee that met and discussed the strategy. So, we knew that this could possibly be open for this this long, and that it was necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Agency directors and supervisors praised the performance of each other\u2019s staffs last weekend. Scranton\u2019s Parks and Recreation staff plowed parking lots, St. Francis provided food, Catholic Social Services and Community Intervention Center staff stayed overnight at the shelters, and the city\u2019s emergency personnel combed the streets to make sure no one was out in the cold.<\/p>\n
The representatives agreed that the personal relationships they have are a major reason they are able to collaborate so well, something that is not always seen in larger cities.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the big elements that is the difference between some of those larger cities is there\u2019s a lot more movement of personnel. So, you\u2019re not dealing with the same people all the time, so you have to redevelop those relationships,\u201d Judge said. \u201cI worked in D.C. for four years in law enforcement, and I can tell you, from a city our size, it\u2019s a lot easier to get stuff done. You\u2019re not dealing with large bureaucratic organizations that take a long time to move. We\u2019re a lot more nimble.\u201d<\/p>\n
St. Francis of Assisi Kitchen has missed only four of its 11 a.m. meals since 1978. Last Sunday\u2019s meal wasn\u2019t one of them.<\/p>\n
Two employees and four volunteers served the Sunday meal, cleaned up and were out the door by 1 p.m., said Rob Williams, the kitchen\u2019s executive director.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, thankfully, by the thick of the storm on Sunday, our people were already gone home,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n
Head chef Gonzalez, who graduated with an associate in science degree in culinary arts from Lackawanna College in 2022, remembers times when her family had to rely on similar community services when she was a child.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo honestly, what inspired me is I grew up one of six children. I was a family of eight. My parents had to go to pantries. They had to utilize these things. I mean, having six kids was hard no matter what. They did their best. They were very hard workers, but there were times that we had to go to a soup kitchen or a food pantry,\u201d Gonzalez said.<\/p>\n
Her position at St. Francis allows for two of her main passions \u2014 culinary arts and helping others, like others once helped her \u2014 to blend together and create a job she loves.<\/p>\n
\u201cI lived this, and I was younger, so I\u2019m sure I didn\u2019t live it the way that most adults do, but, you know, as soon as the opportunity arose and I was able to give back, my thing was, I want to do this. It\u2019s not only going to help my culinary career, but it\u2019s going to help those who actually need it,\u201d Gonzalez said.<\/p>\n
The Diocese of Scranton runs the kitchen at 500 Penn Ave. St. Anthony\u2019s Haven at 600 Olive St. is also run by the diocese through Catholic Social Services.<\/p>\n
The food at\u00a0St. Francis is donated, so they have to use what they have. But having a creative chef with culinary training allows their visitors to eat a four-course meal similar to what they would receive at a restaurant.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re going to get bread, they\u2019re going to get a dessert, they\u2019re going to get a fresh fruit salad made daily, fresh green salad that\u2019s made daily, a starch, meat, a vegetable and a soup,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cSo, when you go down that line, you have more than enough food to fill your plate and fill your stomach for your day. Today I\u2019m actually doing fish stick sandwiches. It\u2019s like a fried fish sandwich with cheese. We got some rolls donated from National Bakery, so we\u2019ll make them up some hoagies with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
St. Francis also runs on the efforts of volunteers. Jerry Burns has been volunteering three days a week for almost 20 years. He said it\u2019s the people he works with and serves that inspire him to keep coming back.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are so appreciative of the help that St. Francis and the CIC provides in terms of daily meals and support, and that kind of drives my interest in volunteering, making sure that that population has at least some basic level of support throughout the community, and if I\u2019m able to help in that way, that\u2019s the motivation that I find,\u201d Burns said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As temperatures plummeted and snow threatened to pile up, St. Francis of Assisi Kitchen prepared to feed more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,139,28,178,180,179,181,1133],"class_list":["post-101962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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