We Care Volunteers

We Care Volunteers Since 2010 We have provided 500,000+ Nutritious Home cooked meals to the Homeless and working poor of Reno Nevada. Directly across from Hooten Tires.

Our mission is to provide a home cooked meal, weather appropriate clothing and support to the homeless and under-served within our community. We provide this support in a judgement free environment for individuals and families in Reno/Sparks who are experiencing homelessness-- whether living rough on the streets of Reno, or in the Daily motels along the 4th street corridor. We are a non profit and

the donations we acquire throughout the year are set aside for providing nightly meals to those experiencing homelessness and to assist our working poor and under served veterans, disabled, and elderly with weather appropriate clothing and toiletries. We Care Volunteers provides a home-cooked meal, Tuesday through Thursday nights for the homeless and working poor of the Reno/Sparks community. We serve dinner from 6:30-7:45pm

(Message for Directions)

We served outdoors Tuesday-Thursday nights at the Safe ground area-- 1905 E. 4th street, 1.5 miles east of the old Record street location. Message for our office address


Many of the resources for the homeless and poor are located within walking distance of this parking lot which means we are able to reach the elderly and disabled living on the 4th street corridor and those traveling by bus. (the bus station is only 1 block away). We Care Volunteers provides the main dish and at least two other side dishes plus the beverage(s) to serve anywhere from 150-400 meals per night. We encourage church, community and school groups along with the general public to join in to serve, and to provide a side-dish or dessert, etc. to round out the meal-- if they so choose. We Care Volunteers-- are all inclusive-- partnering many of the agencies throughout the greater Washoe County to assist those in need, but we have no ties to any specific church, political, or community organization. We have worked alongside the Red-cross, Catholic Charities, Veterans, Blue Star Moms, UNR Sororities, and Fraternities, Girl scouts, and various other groups to help stop hunger among the men, women, and families who live on the streets or the daily motels of Reno/Sparks Nevada. Our volunteers are a cross section of the Washoe County populace and any given night you will meet Retirees, College students, Teachers, and even participants in the local “Pirates of Reno” re-enactment group! We hold two events a year where we provide weather appropriate clothes and gear that we have gathered from the community. We provide free haircuts and toiletries to assist with preparing with the Summer/Winter. These events have attracted over 1000 participants where we have partnered with other community organizations and non-profits to provide a BBQ lunch, clothing, toiletries, and haircuts. How to get involved:

Our group encourages individuals and other groups to participate through making a side dish, dessert, snack, or bottled water to round out our menus. What to expect:

Once you arrive, you will see many homeless people wandering around, just stay in your car and hang out until the rest of us arrive. Once the tables and food is set up (10 minutes), you will be directed as to how you can help, either serving your own dish, or helping serve the main meal, hand out utensils, serving beverage, etc. We are not a religious group, we are an all inclusive group of nice people trying to lend a helping hand to our guests who need a meal and a smile. How much to cook/buy:

We serve anywhere from 150-400 meals per night, think small but good sized portions. We prefer home cooked, --it's more work, but made with LOVE, but whatever you bring is appreciated! Bring more and it means we can provide seconds. Guest/ volunteer interaction:

Introduce yourself to the person next to you serving food. We encourage you to talk to our guests in line, joke around, thank them for coming, smile and talk to them! They are so grateful for human contact, and once we are finished serving dinner you are always welcome to stay and chat with our guests, hand out toiletries, clothes, or dog food that you have brought with you to hand out. Our guests also need weather appropriate clothing, toiletries, and pet food. You can bring out your donations during our dinners, or visit our website at wecarevolunteers.org to learn more about our team and how you can get involved.

02/21/2023
10/02/2022
Update. As of June 1st, we dissolved the We Care Volunteers non-profit. We sold the bus and donated everything to Rever...
10/02/2022

Update. As of June 1st, we dissolved the We Care Volunteers non-profit. We sold the bus and donated everything to Reverend Donna and her Non-profit, Bridge Foundation Chaplaincy. We were so happy to be able to provide them with $6,898.00. Jane and the Reno Posse were able to fundraise during Art town and their outreach pulled in another $3,000.00!! I love to see how seamless this transaction has been and how it has kept Jane and her group providing weekly meals to our homeless community! Rev. Donna and her team are keeping the We Care Volunteer vision going!!! After all these years it was hard giving up our ministry, but I know that Jane and the Reno Posse with Donna's non-profit there to guide and successfully fundraise so that our homeless will have full bellies and the necessities they need to get through tough times. Speaking of which, cold weather will be upon us before we know it! If you are inclined to want to start a coat or cold weather gear collection, please reach out to Rev. Donna 408-309-4087 She will appreciate the help. If you are interested in helping to prepare or distribute meals please reach out to Jane Dunn of the Reno Posse. 775-223-6997. The attached photos are of Donna and friends picking up the equipment for future homeless events, and all of the cooking and serving equipment that kept us going over the years.

Hello Fine folks!I apologize, it's been a while since I have posted, MONTHS actually, but I am still optimistic that I w...
12/06/2021

Hello Fine folks!

I apologize, it's been a while since I have posted, MONTHS actually, but I am still optimistic that I will be able to one day soon let you know that we are back up to serving meals to our homeless community. It has not been an easy path since the food providers were impeded from continuing our service at the 4th Street rest stop. The beauty of the rest stop was that we had a secure area where we were able to practice our commitment to assisting any person with food insecurity without judgment, no questions asked. If you waited in line for a meal--often in inclement weather, you were hungry and in need. I still believe that kindness doled out with a plate of homemade spaghetti and a warm beverage is a catalyst for change and that there were miracles on both sides of our serving tables--both our servers and guests left each evening knowing they were touched by kindness.

What I miss too was our ability to get everyone ready for the change in seasons. Those of you that participated in our homeless events witnessed the gratitude felt by our guests to have their hair cut, and to leave the event with much needed toiletries and weather-appropriate gear. For many years we provided over 1k coats, gloves, beanies, scarves, and socks thanks to the generosity of the community and our volunteers.
For the past two years we have provided care packages to the pop-up tent communities, circulating throughout the parks and riversides to help everyone stay warm. Now that many of the tent communities have disbanded and 600 people from our homeless community have moved to residing temporarily at the Nevada Cares Campus, our assistance is still needed.
Washoe County on behalf of the Nevada Cares Campus reached out to see if we could circulate the attached flyer asking for help. What they are asking for is assistance with acquiring donations of new unused Men's beanies, socks, and gloves.

Please consider helping if you are able--even posting this flyer to raise awareness will be a huge help.
There is a phone number at the bottom of the flyer if you have any questions, or if you need assistance with scheduling a pick up.

This is not a WE CARE VOLUNTEERS sponsored event, we are merely partnering to help get the word out, and we have committed to delivering 100 gloves, beanies, and socks for this event in addition to continuing with our own outreach efforts.
As the capacity at the Nevada Cares Campus is currently full--there is much that we can still do to help our neighbors in need. You will find us distributing care packages throughout Reno on the weekends year-round--providing weather-appropriate gear, toiletries, snacks, and water.

I miss seeing you all on a regular basis, and I look forward to partnering with you again in the near future.
Much Love and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Amber

Hi Folks, I wanted to let you know we are still actively looking for options to serve a meal to our homeless neighbors. ...
06/12/2021

Hi Folks,

I wanted to let you know we are still actively looking for options to serve a meal to our homeless neighbors. With all the goings-on with the Sweeps, Cares campus, homeless protests, and the relocation of our homeless neighbors to remote encampments farther from the services that they rely on-- we are looking for ways to best serve a meal without ruffling too many feathers.

After seeing what consists of a meal provided for those who are staying at the new tent shelter-- we are concerned. What has been reported to me first hand by those staying in the shelter--"the breakfast meal is a stale pastry and a child's portion of fruit juice. For lunch, we have to walk over a mile each way from the Cares campus to St. Vincents wherein many forego the only hot meal offered, due to not being able to walk that distance. Dinner consists of a bun with what has been fondly named "mystery meat", a bag of chips, a child-size carton of milk, and a "moon pie".
We have to do better than this!
It sounds like they have gone back to serving the carb-laden fare that can only contribute to the disease ie. rampant type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure that plagues our homeless community.

I will try to do better at keeping you in the loop, but rather than take all of you on the roller-coaster ride we have experienced this last year--I would hope to be able to post some good news.

Good afternoon everyone! I have wanted to reach out many times hoping that I would have a start date for getting back t...
05/06/2021

Good afternoon everyone! I have wanted to reach out many times hoping that I would have a start date for getting back to serving meals to our houseless guests.

Unfortunately, it has been a roller coaster the last few months, as dates and places for our meal service have been changed several times, and yet we still today do not have a start date or location.

From all appearances, the new Cares complex Super tent opens May 17th, and from what I have gathered that means the inhabitants who are camping in the area between the Aces field and East Commercial Ave will be cleared of the tent city that has been the "home" of over 400 people since covid began.

These are the neediest of our houseless neighbors, and they will be encouraged to enter the Cares Complex Super tent or the adjacent "Safe ground" camping area on the 17th.

We (all the food providers) were politely notified that Catholic Charities will be providing lunch and Dinner service to both the Super tent inhabitants and those staying in smaller tents in the "Safe ground" camping area of the Cares Complex.

Where does that leave us? I am not certain. We all know that not all our houseless neighbors will enter the new tent/safe ground complex.

If you have not been following the progress of the new Cares complex it was generously provided by the partnership of Reno and Sparks city officials during the covid pandemic.

The cost for both phase 1 (super tent) and Phase 2 (22,000 square-foot building that would have a cafeteria with a mini kitchen, security storage, supportive housing, medical services, a resource center, a laundry area, and an outdoor dog park) is $18 million dollars. The $18 million was generated partly from COVID-19 relief funds to purchase the 14 acres of land that is located at the current Governor's Bowl park which sits between I-80 and 4th street, in addition to the cost of both Phase 1 and Phase 2 buildings and resources.

Phase 1--the 46,000 square-foot super tent, will hold 900 people during the time needed to find them permanent housing and is slated to be up and running 5-17.

The remaining money to cover the Washoe County estimated $500,000 budget needed to establish and operate the facility for 12 months, will come partly from the sale of the now-defunct 4th/Record street shelter.--whew!!!!!

I am in a wait-and-see mode. :)
Once the complex is up and running (May 17th), we may be needed elsewhere throughout the city. Unfortunately, there are far more than 900+ chronic homeless in our city, and with the soon-to-be evictions, there will no doubt be more displaced Renoites on the street that need a meal and kindness.

I want your feedback, please. Who of you are open to serving much like we have the last 10 months at impromptu gatherings?
It may mean we serve on the weekends like we have been doing at the E. Commercial Cul-de-sac? Pizza parties, one-dish meals, and take-away snacks? Care packages with toiletries?

I would really appreciate your help with ideas for the future of We Care...YOU have shaped our past, and daily I hear from volunteers wondering when and where we are starting back...this is a time to huddle and re-imagine our future.

I love you all and I look forward to hearing your ideas and seeing you in the near future

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Reno, NV
89502

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