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Broad Street Ministry Taps Philly’s Hotel Industry to Tamp Down Hunger

June 19, 2014 Category: PeopleUncategorized

Once a month, Kevin Murnane, the general manager of the Doubletree Philadelphia, and a handful of employees walk a few paces to Broad Street Ministry, the church-turned-service provider serving 1,000 meals a week to feed the hungry.

Murnane and his colleagues are just a few of the hotel and restaurant professionals who are rolling up their sleeves to tamp down hunger and homelessness in the city.

“It’s not a totally altruistic thing,” explained Murnane, who also serves on Broad Street Ministry’s hospitality advisory board, a nascent group of area hoteliers and restaurateurs lending their expertise to think up solutions to some pressing social problems.

“We’ve had homelessness issues in Philadelphia, and those issues manifest themselves with some fairly aggressive panhandling that has a tendency to take place in front of hotels,” he said. “Our take is that it’s hard to complain about that if you’re not doing something about it.”

A different kind of hospitality 

The advisory board was the result of dedicated outreach on the part of Bill Golderer, the pastor at Broad Street Ministry, who set out to engage the hospitality industry in a genuine way.

“Broad Street Ministry finds itself in a very complex ecosystem in the sense that we are operating in a five-star neighborhood,” Golderer explained, referring to the organization’s Center City location.

During his conversations with the industry, Golderer said, “Leaders shared their frustration that panhandling and other nuisance behavior was having a deleterious impact on their businesses, so my question was, ‘Is there a way you could help us apply what you do?’”

The Greater Philadelphia Hotel Association, a group that advocates for roughly 90 hotels in the region, offered its full support.

“People see us as being in the hospitality business, and this is just an extension of that,” said Ed Grose, the organization’s executive director, “Members involved are very passionate, and it’s a good fit for us.”

In-kind support

In addition to supplying manpower at meal times, Murnane and his peers offer technical consulting and nuts and bolts things, such as sheet pans, toiletries and tablecloths — even stoves.

From our Partners

Other partners, such as the Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia, are donating $1 to Broad Street Ministry for every pot of coffee served, and the organization recently secured support from the Walmart Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts.

According to Golderer, whose goal is not just to feed the hungry, but provide people with a sense of belonging, the hotel industry has been a key partner in helping Broad Street Ministry scale up.

“They have helped us grow and expand in the triple bottom line fashion, and it’s their technical know-how that helps us maintain an environment of warmth,” Golderer said.

Four times a week, Broad Street Ministry’s meal program greets guests the way a hotel would.  They are seated at covered tables — complete with centerpieces — and served restaurant-quality dishes from a banquet tray.

For Murnane, the program has helped put a face on homelessness.

“When you see the guests in here, you see that they are your brother and sister,” he said. “It puts [homelessness] on a human scale, and you see an appreciation and thankfulness from the guests receiving that meal.”

Image via Broad Street Ministry website

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