My wife and I have been Charles County residents for nearly 15 years. Like so many people who live here, we get caught up in the challenges of everyday life. We endure daily traffic jams and long lines at the grocery store. Weekends are dedicated to yard work, grocery shopping, maybe a trip to the mall or a meal at one of the many restaurants in the area. After all of that, we go back to our homes, perhaps watch a little television before going to bed, then start the cycle again the next day. That use to be our life until a few years ago, when my wife told me of people living in tents the woods and how they had been forced off the land because it was being cleared for new construction. I was totally shocked; first with the fact of homelessness in Waldorf and secondly where would these people go. Some time later, I heard of an organization that was starting a local soup kitchen. The goal of the soup kitchen was to provide a nutritious meal daily to those homeless and hungry in an unbiased environment. It was here that we became part of a small group of people who have dedicated themselves to helping those in need. “Homelessness in Charles County” you say? I mean who doesn’t see the occasional person wandering the streets or someone at the intersection asking for a handout. Are most people are blind to the realities around them? Oblivious to the fact that there are entire groups of people in Southern Maryland that go unnoticed and live under the radar. They are what I call the invisible people. They are the people that slip through the cracks of the various government agencies and non-profit organizations that were designed to help them. These are the people who may have mental issues, recovering from drug or alcohol abuse, or as we have seen, people who work, but don’t have enough to make financial ends meet. Families with small children; couples; men; women; various ages and ethnic backgrounds. These are the people we set out to feed and hopefully, with there help get them to a place where they can not only help themselves, but help somebody.
