Duluthians Help Neighbors Experiencing Homelessness

Pizzas and food donations being brought to West Duluth warming center Thursday

DULUTH, Minn. – In the bitter cold and snow, many in the Duluth community are making donations to help people experiencing homelessness.

Thursday night, good samaritans took food donations to the West Duluth warming center to help their homeless neighbors.

“We love the generosity, we’d love it to keep on coming, it’s been inspiring every night, it’s like Santa Claus, it’s like who is going to bring in something terrific today and the people who are staying there are deeply moved by it too,” said Lee Stuart, Executive Director of the CHUM homeless shelter.

The CHUM shelter in Downtown Duluth is filled with stacks of donated sleeping bags and winter clothes.

“For the first time since I’ve been at CHUM, we’re kind of stocked up on those things now,” said Stuart.

CHUM helps about eighty people every night at their shelter and five to thirty-five more at the West Duluth warming center when temperatures dip below zero.

“We had no idea who was going to come to stay or who was going to come to help and the response in both cases has been just excellent,” said Stuart.

Last week, in the middle of frigid sub-zero temperatures, Iron Mug owner, Mike Letica, got an anonymous donation to provide pizzas at the warming center.\

“The people there were just ecstatic about getting it,” said Letica. “It was probably the first warm meal they had in a long time.”

When the warming center opened again this week, Letica and his wife volunteered their time and resources to keep the pizzas coming.

“I thought to myself if I saw in the paper or on the news that one person in Duluth died because of exposure to the cold, I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself so personally, that’s why I felt I needed to do something,” said Letica.

Others have responded by donating beef jerky, beverages, and fruit trays to further help people trapped in the cold.

Even the people experiencing homelessness have shown a lot of generosity.

“While I was putting the pizzas on the table, one of the homeless gentlemen came up to one of the police officers and he said ‘it’s cold out there, huh?’ and the police officer said ‘yeah it’s really cold’ and he goes ‘well here’s my handsome hand warmers for you’ and the police officer said ‘no, you keep them for yourself’ and he says ‘no I’ve got enough to get me through the night, it’s cold out there, you take these,'” said Mike Letica, explaining an act of kindness he witnessed.

Donations are accepted at the warming center between the hours of 9:30 to 10:30 p.m. and 5:00 to 6:00 a.m. on days the center is open.

Otherwise, donations should be taken directly to CHUM.