- Franciscan Outreach Association
- 1645 W. LeMoyne Street, Chicago, IL 60622
- Telephone (773)278-6724 Fax (773)278-7120
- About Us
- Shelter
- Soup Kitchen
- Case Management
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The Marquard Center - Dining Room for the homeless, case management offices, showers, laundry, and administrative offices
Every night of the year, at about 4:30 or 5:00 p.m., men, women and children begin to line up in the courtyard of the Marquard Center. The courtyard sits between a church built a century ago and its former school. The yard is about four feet below street level, a strange side effect of the … click here to read the rest of this story .
At the Marquard Center, we serve a nutritious meal to an average of 138 men, women, and children every night of the year. Although we call ourselves a soup kitchen, we rarely serve soup. Meals consist of a main dish, one or two side dishes, milk, coffee, bread, and a dessert if one has been donated.
Our guests are seated at tables of
four to encourage them to talk
with one another and get to know each
other. We strive to recognize our guests by name and encourage them to
talk with the case managers, who introduce themselves to our guests, set
individual appointments, and help them find
whatever they need to build a better life for themselves.
The meal is serve
d at 5:30 p.m.
every day of the year. We are assisted by several full-time volunteers who
live on-site as well as 7 or 8 part-time volunteers who serve dinner to
the guests for just one meal. If you are interested in being a full-time
volunteer or a part-time volunteer
check out the information on the rest of our site.
Although most of our guests are homeless, many have housing but simply can't afford to eat. Our numbers go up significantly by the end of the month as other sources of food dry up.
On Wednesdays, during the day, we host our drop-in case management services, medical personnel, mental health outreach workers, and a substance abuse counseling meeting at the Marquard Center. These services are provided by our salaried case managers as well as staff from the STAIRS Program of Chicago Health Outreach.
We also offer showers twice a week to our guests. We supply them with a towel, soap, deodorant, shampoo, and other necessities.
We have the only drop-off laundry service in Chicago. Guests can drop off one bag of laundry per day with our volunteers. Their clothes are washed, dried, folded by our full time volunteers and held for pick up the next day. Showers and clean clothes are essential to maintaining a sense of personal dignity and making connections for a better future.
In 2005, we provided:
-
49,087 full meals
-
1,361 showers
-
1,683 bags of laundry washed, dried and folded, and
-
over 4,000 case management contacts.
We accept donations of non-perishable food (especially canned fruits and vegetables) and other things a person would need to eat or take a shower. For a list of the items we need most, check out our Buy-A-Supply Program.
However, monetary donations that we can use wherever they are needed the most are the most helpful to us. To donate now, click here.
For a tour of our Marquard Center, or a map to our soup kitchen, click here.