It\u2019s 7:30 a.m. on a Friday, and it\u2019s hot inside the basement kitchen at St. James Episcopal Church, where Dakota Crowell and a few other University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students are preparing a meal. It will be served to roughly 200 people in Milwaukee who have no home.<\/p>\n
Every Friday morning, UWM\u2019s Center for Community-Based Learning, Leadership and Research provides transportation for UWM students to volunteer with The Gathering, a nonprofit organization that specializes in providing meals to the homeless, largely with food donated from local businesses.<\/p>\n
Crowell grew up in the small, northern Wisconsin town of Wittenberg, where he\u00a0didn\u2019t know much about the issue of homelessness, let alone personally encounter it. Then he moved to Milwaukee, and about two years ago, he began working at CCBLLR, driving students to volunteer in the St. James kitchen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really been a learning experience,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s been really helpful to break down the stigma of stereotypes of homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many people associate homelessness with drug addiction and mental illness, but Crowell has found that sometimes, all it takes is a \u201clittle slip\u201d for someone\u2019s life to get beyond their control.<\/p>\n
As the 8:30 a.m. mealtime draws closer, the kitchen bustle intensifies. Sophomore Alyssa Torrez, who plans to major in social work, is in the back stacking loaves of bread.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re doing something bigger than ourselves,\u201d Torrez says. \u201cWe get caught up in our lives a lot, and we don\u2019t really think about giving back to the people who need it most.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zaya Tuvshinbayar is originally from Mongolia, and the junior is an exchange student from Japan.\u00a0She says can\u2019t remember seeing any programs like The Gathering prior to coming to the United States,\u00a0but now that she’s worked\u00a0there, she\u00a0wants put that\u00a0experience toward helping others in the future.<\/p>\n
Because, she says simply, \u201cI like to volunteer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UWM students spend Friday mornings helping The Gathering serve Milwaukeeans without a home. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2985,"featured_media":33444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174],"tags":[249],"section":[122,124],"display_categories":[115,116],"related-coverage":[260],"uwmnews-feed":[],"class_list":["post-33436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-community-engagement","section-campus-community","section-students","display_categories-top-story-secondary","display_categories-top-story-section","related-coverage-community-engagement"],"yoast_head":"\n