Hosea group 's 40th year marked by greater need

ATLANTA --- The largest one-day sit-down dinner and meals on wheels operation in the country reached its 40th anniversary this year during a rise in need and a decline in donations.

Hosea Feed the Hungry was started in 1970 by civil rights icon the Rev. Hosea Williams and his wife, Juanita, to feed Atlanta's homeless. On Thursday, the organization was geared up to feed 30,000 homeless and working poor in the city -- many of whom planned to take advantage of the group's services for the first time.

"It has been an amazing thing to see that their vision for the homeless is still alive and thriving even in these economic times," said Elisabeth Omilami, the group's executive director and daughter of its founders. "Not only do we have the chronically homeless to serve. We have the newly poor. It sort of triples our job."

The Thanksgiving Festival of Services is one of four holiday events put on by Hosea Feed the Hungry, along with the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday, Easter and Christmas. Besides a hot, seven-course meal, the events offer hot showers, clothing, barber and beautician services, medical screenings and employment and housing referrals.

On a year-round basis, Hosea Feed the Hungry also provides rent and utility assistance for nearly 300 families, delivers more than 25,000 meals to senior citizens and homebound families and provides quarterly medical and dental clinics.

This year, the agency will also administer 400 H1N1 vaccinations. Ms. Omilami said the homeless are among the most at-risk populations for the swine flu.

"If anything spreads among the homeless population, they are sleeping in our doorways, they are sleeping in our parks, they are sleeping in our shelters," she said. "It's going to affect the larger population."

Ms. Omilami said rising unemployment and the September floods in metro Atlanta have added to the task. She says corporate and individual contributions for Hosea Feed the Hungry are down 35 percent, while monthly calls for help are up 45 percent.

Still, she said the group's mission is more critical than even in the down economy.

"Nonprofits like Hosea Feed the Hungry must flourish in this country because the poor will turn to them to fill the gap," Ms. Omilami said. She said 70 percent of donations come from working people, who give an average gift of about $60. "They are concerned about their relatives, their neighbors," she said.

Ms. Omilami also announced on Thursday a campaign to raise $3 million for a new headquarters.