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Volunteers look for new location to feed homeless in Lafayette

feeding homelesss.jpg
Posted at 3:14 AM, Jul 06, 2021
and last updated 2021-07-06 07:27:04-04

In Federal Park in downtown Lafayette, a group of volunteers has served homemade meals to the homeless every week for a few years.

Now, they are being told those weekly dinners can no longer happen.

"On Thursday nights we do home cooked dinners in downtown Lafayette. It's our way to reach out to the homeless community and show them love because we're in Southwest Louisiana and that's how people show love," says Lianne Dick, who started this tradition downtown six years ago. The group has spent time in a few spots downtown.

"We were pushed out of Parc Sans Souci, so we moved to Federal Park. And now we've been pushed out of Federal Park as well," says Dick.

Regulars at these weekly dinners say they can't come to an end.

"They're doing a good job, helping people out. Mostly homeless people. People who are struggling, people that just came out of jail. People that are struggling. People that are a long way from home, people that don't have family," says a regular visitor at these Thursday dinners.

The volunteers want to maintain their relationships with the homeless, and they don't want to skip a week.

They're now asking business owners and residents of downtown if they could lend some outdoor space once a week toward this cause.

"Really we're just looking for a small sidewalk, anything, maybe a parking lot," says Dick.

If you have a parking lot or space to share for a couple hours a week, reach out to abby.breidenbach@katctv.com to be connected with the volunteer group.