Cal Poly Students to Serve Dinner to the Homeless on Feb. 20

SAN LUIS OBISPO – Students with Cal Poly’s Beyond Shelter program will serve dinner Friday, Feb. 20 at the Maxine Lewis Memorial Homeless Shelter in San Luis Obispo.

Student volunteers serve dinner to 75 to 150 people at the shelter on the third Friday of every month.

The evening starts with students preparing and cooking dinner around 3:30 p.m., then taking it to the shelter (which is on Orcutt Road near the intersection with Broad Street). Between five and 10 students help out each month.

“Everyone at the shelter is really friendly and grateful, and it is amazing how easy it is to connect with someone over a hot plate of food,” said student Tara Johnston, co-coordinator of Cal Poly’s Beyond Shelter program. “Cooking and serving a hot meal is just a small task that makes a big difference to help fellow members of our community.”

Beyond Shelter is a program within Cal Poly’s Student Community Services, serving as the bridge between students and San Luis Obispo County’s homeless population. The program has a variety of regularly scheduled outreach programs for homeless adults and children.

For more information about Beyond Shelter, log on to www.studentlife.calpoly.edu/scs/programs/shelter.asp or contact Johnston or co-coordinator Megan Hitchcock at 805-756-5834 or scs.beyondshelter@gmail.com.

Beyond Shelter is one of 10 programs in Student Community Services aimed at providing students an opportunity for service and volunteer efforts. For more information, log on to http://www.studentlife.calpoly.edu/scs/index.asp.

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