It was Christmas of 2015, and after noticing a few homeless in her neighborhood, Voorhees, NJ local turned Fishtown resident Margaux Murphy had an idea for a random act of kindness. Fast forward two years and thousands of meals later, that decision has led her and a group of volunteers to 15th and JFK, where she is changing lives by spreading LOVE, one meal at a time.
“150 meals can be gone in as little as 6 minutes,” Margaux explains, followed by a quick snap of her fingers. “They go like that.” The meals she is referring to are the home-cooked ones the LOVE team provides to the homeless of the city. According to Project Home, the City’s January 2016 Point-in-Time count of the homeless included 705 unsheltered individuals throughout the entire city of Philadelphia. “I can get to Love Park by 2 pm and I’m back at the church preparing for Sunday’s dinner service by 2:30 pm,” she continues to tell me as we take another sip of our iced coffees. But thanks to a very recent grant from the city (1 year to serve 100 people), that’s not where her efforts end. Margaux and LOVE now offer a brunch at the Church of the Holy Trinity Church (1904 Walnut St.) in the Centennial Room at noon the following day. That’s 3 services and hundreds of people in as little as 48 hours. But Margaux’s not finished. She spends the rest of her week serving at a recovery house in Kensington, aiding those suffering from addiction.
It’s hard to imagine that Margaux used to pull this off all by herself. She explains that before she had access to Church of the Holy Trinity to prepare food for The LOVE project, she created these meals out of her own small kitchen. Now a non-profit, Sunday LOVE has the help of different volunteers and has gained national attention (like a guest appearance on the Rachel Ray show). Reading her personal Facebook page, I look over her entries from each day as she documents her encounters while serving meals. My favorite recently:
“Folks just went bananas over that meal. It’s so crazy that all I have to do is show up and my guys take it from there. I love hearing them get thanked by the others out there. Earns them respect. I overheard one guy say, “How you get to help?” The other guy said, “Just ask Margaux and you can probably do it next time.” Feeling important is invaluable.
So is feeling LOVED.
Get involved!
Sign up and make a home-cooked meal! The LOVE team posts menu items on www.signupgenius.com (food they need and recipes how to make it) and volunteers can click on the link on the sundaylove.org site to sign up to fulfill the order.
