Team Members from ESS Clean, Inc. Pitched In to Build a Kitchen for Restoration Urban Ministries
The staff at ESS Clean, Inc. partnered with a number of area businesses to complete a community-service project for Restoration Urban Ministries. ESS managed the project, as well as, provided most of the labor and half of the funding. The yearlong project was to build a large kitchen for the residents at the Champaign-Urbana based non-profit organization that provides assistance to the homeless. Team members pitched in nearly every Saturday morning for about four months to build the kitchen, which includes all of the cookware and appliances needed for the residents of Restoration Urban Ministries to prepare healthy, home-cooked meals.
The kitchen was finished in April 2010 and presented to the residents of Restoration Urban Ministries during a special dedication event where residents, volunteers, and community members were invited to see the kitchen and celebrate the success of the community-service project.
One of the biggest obstacles faced by homeless people is the lack of ability and knowledge to be able to prepare healthy, home-cooked meals for themselves. We started this project because we wanted to give people a place where they could prepare meals instead of picking up a burger at the nearest fast-food joint, says Paul Taylor, President of ESS Clean, Inc.
Restoration Urban Ministries is a faith-based social services agency that provides assistance to homeless families and helps them become self-sufficient. The non-profit organization is there to provide a helping hand to those who have nowhere else to turn. Residents include people who have become homeless after losing employment, people who were living in their vehicles until weather turned too cold, those suffering from drug addictions, and recently released from prison or on parole, as well as, a number of young single mothers with no one else to help.