Midnight Run

In over 1000 relief missions per year Midnight Run volunteers from churches, synagogues, schools, and other civic groups distribute food, clothing, blankets, and personal care items to the homeless poor on the streets of New York City. The late-night relief efforts create a forum for trust, sharing, understanding and affection. That human exchange, rather than the exchange of goods, is the essence of the Midnight Run mission. While not a solution to the overall problem of homelessness, it is a way to forge bonds between people who have been blessed with means and those who have suffered want, and it is a way to reach out one’s hands in the name of Jesus. As a specific response to Bishop Provenzano’s call for churches to reach out to the homeless, it is hopefully a way for Trinity to, as the bishop often says, “be the Church being the Church”.

2017 marked Trinity’s second year participating in this ministry. Volunteers were divided into three teams. Starting in December the parish collected clothes and toiletries. Sorting and shopping was overseen by Team 1 right up the event in February. Team 2 prepared meals for eighty five people, and Team 3 were called the “runners”, who went on the mission itself and distributed the food and clothing. One rather wonderful aspect of this approach is that it allowed virtually everyone to participate in some way, whether by financial donation, shopping, knitting caps, sorting, cooking, or going on the run itself.

The Run is not currently planned for 2018, but may be revisited in future years.

Their website is www.midnightrun.org

(Please note in the pictures below that it is the policy of the Midnight Run not to allow pictures of those being aided, so as to respect their privacy.  Therefore all the pictures on this  site are of our team preparing for the evening.)