A plea to the community from The Rescue Mission of Roanoke.
Donations to the non-profit are down, while the demand for services continues to rise.
Every day, hundreds of people rely on the Rescue Mission for shelter, food, medical care, the list goes on.
“The need for services we offer here at the rescue mission is up. We have more folks coming in looking for shelter, dining services, addiction recovery services. Really anything we offer people are in need of,” said Director of Marketing & Communications, Kevin Berry.
For perspective, during this month, around 250 people sought shelter at the Mission every night.
As compared to the latest Point-In-Time County data from 2023 where there were 222 people a night at the Mission, and in 2021, 117 people.
“Everything we do here is based off the fact that we have donations coming in. We are so thankful for all those. But if those all stopped, it would make it near impossible to do the work that we do every day.”
Without these services, there wouldn’t be success stories, like Debbie.
“Just recently, we had a woman named Debbie come to the Rescue Mission. She had just lost her husband and she was feeling quite lost. She found not only a place to stay, but a supportive environment, and she just recently moved out into sustainable housing which is beautiful,” said Berry.
While monetary donations are needed, The Rescue Mission also relies on volunteers as well as food and clothing donations.