About 15 Loyola students and some faculty members spent Sunday afternoon in Lafayette Square feeding and conversing with the homeless people who gather in the area.
The Hunger Relief program, led by Mary Burckell, Catholic Studies junior, and Ryan Lessl, music performance sophomore, and sponsored by the Loyola University Community Action Program, has been in effect for several years.
However, the students who participated last week had a different experience than many who have gone in the past when a couple of the area’s residents confronted the group, said Allison Drevich, sociology senior and president of LUCAP.
Every Sunday, students and faculty meet in the Underground at 11 a.m. and spend about an hour making the lunches, which consist of two sandwiches, a piece of fruit, a can of soda and chips.
The group then heads to the Central Business District and spends about an hour and a half giving out the food to and talking with the people they encounter.
Though the size of the crowd the group serves differs each week, Burckell and Drevich said they prepare about 130 lunches normally.
But in recent weeks, area residents have written e-mails to the Rev. Bernard Knoth, S.J., university president, expressing their disapproval with the program. They also sent copies of these e-mails to The Maroon.
Doug Ballard, a Julia St. resident, claims that Sunday one of the homeless men who received food from Hunger Relief assaulted him by hitting him in the back of the head with a banana. Ballard said the man threw garbage on the ground next to a garbage can, and when he asked the homeless man to pick it up, the man threw it at him.
LUCAP and Hunger Relief say that no one in their group saw the incident and that they are unable to determine whether it actually happened.
Kevin Kelly, B’77 and St. Charles Avenue resident, blames LUCAP for an infestation of rodents in the area, saying that garbage left on the ground attracts them. He also accused the program of inviting drunks into the area who “wander the neighborhood urinating, defecating and vomiting on the premises of the businesses and residents” in the neighborhood.
According to Drevich, this is not the first time LUCAP has experienced opposition.
Five years ago, the group’s fight to continue the project led all the way to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, where the judge threw out a case filed against the university, she said.
Loyola was charged with operating a kitchen without a license.
The Rev. Eddie Gros, S.J., Dean of University Ministry and Sister Leyla Cerda, LUCAP adviser, said they have taken extra precautions in recent years in order to avoid another ordeal.
Since the last lawsuit, residents have forced the group to transport the food in ice chests and constantly check the temperature of the meat to make sure that there is nothing for which LUCAP could be legally faulted.
Cerda, Gros, Burckell and Drevich all say that the residents are looking for any excuse to run them out of the area. However, they said they do have the full support of the university and Knoth and have been in contact with their attorneys, including Bill Quigley of the Loyola Poverty Law Center, to make sure that the situation is safe for volunteers. Kelly and Ballard said they believe it is LUCAP that is drawing the undesirable people to his neighborhood.
Lee Madere, L’92, expressed disappointment in Loyola, saying he expected more.
“I’m disappointed and embarrassed that this is the best my alma mater can do to help people who need help,” he said.
He also voiced concern over Loyola’s choice of venue and time for handing out food. “Giving people a sandwich at 1:30 p.m. on a Sunday when the Ozanam Inn provides a hot dinner at 2 p.m. doesn’t seem to be a very effective way to help the people,” he said.
The Ozanam Inn has been a shelter in the neighborhood for 50 years and residents feel that it is bringing down the value of their property, Drevich said.
She said that no matter what day LUCAP served food, it would coincide with Ozanam, which serves meals every day. But Burckell said she feels that anyone would be happy for more than one meal a day any time they can obtain it.
Madere isn’t the only one with suggestions on how to improve LUCAP’s Hunger Relief program.
Kelly, in an e-mail to Knoth, suggested that Loyola open its doors to the homeless by serving them in the Orleans Room after hours and allowing the homeless to picnic in the horseshoe during the day.
He also told Knoth that Loyola’s “continued disregard for our neighborhood will not be tolerated…We will take whatever actions are necessary to protect our neighborhood.”
Kelly also suggested that the best way Loyola students could help the homeless would be for students to take them home with them, thus giving them a home.
According to Drevich, Ballard blames Loyola for bringing the homeless to the neighborhood, saying that it is the offer of free food that draws them to the area.
Drevich and Burckell said they do not see Kelly’s options as feasible and said that they do not feel that they will change their program due to the complaints received.
They do not want to be intimidated into not helping those who need help, they said.
All involved from LUCAP say they have invited concerned residents to sit down and talk, but the group said that as of yet, no one has accepted that offer.
One of the beneficiaries of LUCAP’s Hunger Relief program holds an orange from his meal. LUCAP says it doesn’t plan to discontinue the project, despite objections from area residents. (LUCAP )
Two participants of LUCAP’s Hunger Relief program enjoy their free lunches in the grass of Lafayette Square. Residents of the area say that the program leaves Lafayette Square dirty and that the food attracts rodents, but LUCAP members say they are carfeul to make sure they leave the area cleaner than when they found it. (LUCAP )
Ryan Lessl, music performance sophomore and co-chairman of Loyola University Community Action Program’s Hunger Relief program, hands out food to the homeless downtown near Lafayette Square. (LUCAP )
