Maryhouse

(916) 446-4961

The Loaves & Fishes Maryhouse program is a daytime shelter for homeless women and children. The program provides personal attention to women who need help with identity issues through intense short-term counseling with a goal of helping them take the next step toward independence and self-sufficiency. Other women guests, especially the mentally ill or chemically dependant, are provided with longer term assistance. The goal of the program is to help give each homeless woman the necessary tools to live independently in a home of her own with her children.

With Maryhouse, The Hot Breakfast Meal program provides women and children a hot home-cooked breakfast each day. Early each morning community volunteers arrive to prepare the meal which consists of items such as French toast, pancakes or scrambled eggs along with oatmeal, fruit, cereal, juice, coffee and hot chocolate on cold days for the children. While guests are eating, crisis managers have the opportunity to assist newly arriving families in need of care and for teachers from another Loaves & Fishes program, Mustard Seed School (a school for homeless children), to enroll children for the day. Maryhouse collaborates with community organizations such as churches, businesses, and service clubs to provide the volunteers to serve the meal.