Mother Maria Mobile Hospitality and Assistance Program

The Mother Maria (Skobtsova) Mobile Hospitality and Assistance Van is a mobile extension of the traditional Orthodox emphasis on serving the poor through hospitality, specifically healthy, home-cooked food. A healthy, basic meal would be prepared in one of several parish kitchens by parish volunteers (“Cooks”), coordinated by the Parish Coordinator, in conjunction with the Local Director. A set menu(s) would be established with a cost not to exceed $1.75/person, including paper goods. Each parish would cover the cost of the meal for the assigned day as well as volunteers. The responsibility would rotate between several parishes and hopefully an individual parish would serve the meal a maximum of once a month. The Parish coordinator would assign a serving team of volunteers (“Servers”) from that parish – or another parish (teens and youth are great here). The food would be cooked in the parish kitchen (“Designated Kitchen”) or in private homes, covered in Saran Wrap and topped with tin foil and contained in disposable catering trays. The food is then to be set in a FOCUS delivery truck, along with any other needed items – tables, chairs, paper goods, plastic goods, heaters, blankets, etc. – and driven to a designated site. The food is served on premises by FOCUS parish volunteers, or on supplied tables (street; park; etc.). FOCUS Orange County will work with other providers – e.g. Isaiah House, The Salvation Army, and The Illumination Foundation – who provide emergency or transitional housing for site locations in areas located near sponsoring parishes. In addition, FOCUS plans to do regular “mercy missions”, where we go out of an evening to parks, campgrounds or other areas with hot drinks, blankets, sandwiches and friendship.