While families across the country gathered for Christmas morning, Dave Pomeroy huddled in a gray tent outside the Clark County Public Service Center.
Melting icicles dripped from the awning, as he and other homeless people gathered in the cover offered by the building and nearby gazebo.
But a frigid Christmas morning was nonetheless a bit warmer for Pomeroy and the others, thanks to a coordinated effort between a Vancouver restaurant, local nonprofits and ministries. Staff and volunteers at Bleu Door Bakery sent volunteer crews across town, laden with hot meals, bags with snacks and as many socks and scarves as they could carry.
“It means so much to get a meal,” Pomeroy said, clutching a container of turkey, green beans, mashed potatoes, dressing and gravy. “This reminds me of home.”
This is the third year Bleu Door Bakery owner Bonnie Brasure has provided meals to Vancouver’s homeless community. In previous years, she’s opened the restaurant for those in need. But that can be a challenge for people, Brasure said. Transportation is limited on Christmas, and making it to the restaurant’s Main Street location isn’t easy for everyone.
Instead, Brasure went to them. While the warm smell of gravy and stuffing filled the restaurant, Brasure and volunteers filled bags with fruit, cookies, chips, wet wipes and cutlery.
“You can’t imagine someone sleeping out in this at night,” Brasure said, standing in the snow outside her restaurant. “The impact is just huge.”
From there, outreach groups including Break Every Chain and Concerned Humans Against Poverty delivered about 300 meals to people sleeping outside or in shelters on Christmas.
Chuck Goneau and Renee Lange run the Break Every Chain ministry, which provides meals during the week.
“You have no idea how much this is going to mean to people,” Lange said, tears in her eyes, as she and Goneau collected food from Brasure.
Goneau smiled and shared small talk with those he handed meals to, calling them his friends.
He said he couldn’t pass an opportunity to serve, even if it meant working out in the snow on Christmas morning.
After all, he said, he was spending the holiday with his “other family.”
“I feel the Lord called me to serve the homeless,” Goneau said.
