As of January 8, the Freezing Nights Ministry has been suspended until future notice.
Original Mission:
Freezing Nights is a program established by a group of faith communities in the Puyallup area. Several churches take turns providing a place for homeless individuals to sleep indoors during the coldest months of the year. Other churches provide an evening meal and a cooked breakfast. The season begins November 1 and runs through March 30.
Holy Disciples Parish works with Puyallup Nazarene Church in downtown Puyallup to provide a weekly cooked breakfast on Monday mornings during the Freezing Nights program. Each week a team of 4 or 5 people under the direction of a Team Lead bring in the ingredients and cook breakfast for between 40 and 70 guests; the number varies according to the weather.
COVID Pandemic Changes:
Due to the required COVID restrictions, the Freezing Nights program has changed for 2021-22. These changes were necessary to continue serving our community and protect guests and volunteers from transmission of the Coronavirus. This is a great step forward as the program was cancelled last year even though the need remained. As the program restarts, the specific details are still evolving and will be passed along as they become available.
The biggest change this year prevents our Freezing Nights guests from being accommodated overnight. Presently, the guests will gather three evenings each week from November thru March. They will connect with community resources, receive an evening meal, and interact with Puyallup’s faith communities. Holy Disciples is planning to provide an evening meal on the fourth Friday of each month. If our volunteer group allows, we will increase our participation to additional weeks.
We expect to serve approximately 50 people at each meal in a facility in the Puyallup Valley. We believe we can complete this task using the footprint of our previous Freezing nights participation, just change the focus to the evening meal. Each date will have a team lead to coordinate the menu and servers. The lead will be supported by 3-4 team members to prepare and serve the meal and clean up afterwards.