![\"VPVisitPrivateLunch.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/static.lehigh-v.lehigh-valley.production.k1.m1.brightspot.cloud\/dims4\/default\/22128c4\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/2048x1152+0+0\/resize\/880x495!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flehigh-valley-brightspot.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Ff2%2Ffd%2Fddf76461449c9d23dfae56de1b9a%2Fvpvisitprivatelunch.jpg\")
<\/p>\nALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 Vice President J.D. Vance stopped Tuesday at Allentown Rescue Mission after laying the blame for an \u201caffordability crisis\u201d at former President Joe Biden\u2019s feet during a stop in Alburtis.<\/p>\n
Vance served lunch to residents and staff at the downtown nonprofit with his wife, Usha; U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie; and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, according to Stuart \u201cSkip\u201d Smith, who runs the mission. <\/p>\n
Local reporters were not invited inside for Vance\u2019s visit.<\/p>\n
After they helped with lunch service, the Vances spent \u201cat least half an hour\u201d having a private lunch with four men from the mission\u2019s Clean Team Workforce, Smith told LehighValleyNews.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re a pretty good model. We’re the kind of model that a lot of politicians like to hear about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stuart “Skip” Smith, Allentown Rescue Mission CEO<\/p>\n
Each of the men told the vice president his \u201cstory,\u201d describing how they became homeless, how the mission helped them and \u201cwhere they are headed at this stage of their life,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had a great time,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
Clean Team members are graduates of the mission\u2019s emergency shelter and transformation programs who \u201care currently earning a living and saving money\u201d to secure more permanent housing, he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Alena Duncan<\/p>\n
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Allentown Rescue Mission<\/p>\n
U.S Vice President J.D. Vance and his wife, Usha (far left), enjoy a private lunch with four members of the Allentown Rescue Mission’s Clean Team Workforce on Tuesday, Dec. 16. <\/p>\n
The men who dined with Vance said he was \u201cvery approachable\u201d and \u201cjust like a regular guy,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
Vance \u201cand his wife both told me that they really, really enjoyed the lunch, and they were happy to be able to spend the lunch time with four of our Clean Team associates,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
‘A pretty good model’<\/p>\n
Vance\u2019s visit to the downtown Allentown shelter was in the works for more than a week.<\/p>\n
Smith said administration officials selected the mission as a potential second stop for their Lehigh Valley trip after getting glowing reviews from \u201ca lot of references.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those references came from Pennsylvania politicians who have similar visits, including Mackenzie, U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick and former Sens. Bob Casey and Pat Toomey.<\/p>\n
![\"VPVisitMackenzie.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/static.lehigh-v.lehigh-valley.production.k1.m1.brightspot.cloud\/dims4\/default\/4a0cf3c\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/2048x1152+0+0\/resize\/880x495!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flehigh-valley-brightspot.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fc5%2F5a%2Fe1139fbb41ac8328c8b3b7f3bfef%2Fvpvisitmackenzie.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Alena Duncan<\/p>\n
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Allentown Rescue Mission<\/p>\n
U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Lehigh Valley, serves lunch Tuesday, Dec. 16, at the Allentown Rescue Mission as part of Vice President J.D. Vance’s visit to the region.<\/p>\n
The Allentown Rescue Mission\u2019s initiatives \u201cline up really, really well with things they care about,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The mission works to \u201crescue and rehabilitate\u201d homeless men and \u201crestore them to employment, [and] financial independence,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
He said much of the nonprofit\u2019s work is funded through private donations rather than federal funding.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re a pretty good model,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe’re the kind of model that a lot of politicians like to hear about.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘It can work \u2014 and does’<\/p>\n
Smith also highlighted the Second Lady\u2019s focus on children\u2019s literacy.<\/p>\n
He and others showed Usha Vance the mission\u2019s \u201cBooks to the Rescue\u201d program, which collects \u201clearn-to-read\u201d books from families as their children progress to higher comprehension levels. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo be recognized for the work that they do, it’s a very, very big morale booster for our organization overall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stuart “Skip” Smith, Allentown Rescue Mission CEO <\/p>\n
The mission has handed out more than 26,000 books since its inception.<\/p>\n
Smith was grateful Tuesday for the vice president\u2019s visit with other top officials.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m thankful they stopped in and they gave us recognition,\u201d he said. \u201cIt’s a very big encouragement to our guests and to our employees and our staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be recognized for the work that they do, it’s a very, very big morale booster for our organization overall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith said he hopes the mission showed Vance and other officials that shelters and services \u201ccan actually help these men really restore themselves to a proper [place] in society \u2014 that it can work, and it does work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 Vice President J.D. Vance stopped Tuesday at Allentown Rescue Mission after laying the blame for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,30804,34322,120,5546,34323,34324,34325,33270],"class_list":["post-64414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-homelessness","tag-allentown-jd-vance","tag-allentown-news","tag-allentown-rescue-mission","tag-allentown-rescue-mission-jd-vance-visit","tag-vance-homeless","tag-vice-president-visits-allentown-nonprofit","tag-vice-president-vance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64414","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=64414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}