A Story of Serving the Homeless in Rochester

In February of 2014, I had the opportunity to serve at Dimitri House with members of my community group. I had only been attending Northridge for about a month at the time, but when this opportunity was presented, I was excited to jump in and serve in a capacity I had yet to experience: sharing Christ's love with the homeless in Rochester.

Dimitri House is a non-profit organization that serves the needy in Rochester by providing food, shelter and services toward the goal of self-sufficiency. One of the leaders of my community group attended RIT, and one of the campus ministries there partners with Dimitri House, and that is how we got connected. One of the programs Dimitri House offers is a men's winter shelter that is open 7 nights a week from November through April, with dinner served in the evenings and a hearty breakfast in the mornings. My group cooked dinner for the men, including dessert, then one of the leaders and I stayed overnight to serve breakfast in the morning.

The entire experience was positive, from start to finish. It is difficult to understand the struggles of the homeless men who have to utilize emergency housing, and this serving opportunity helped me to have more empathy for the homeless population in Rochester as a whole. Not only did I get to spend quality time with my community group during the cooking, serving and cleaning process, but we got to sit down and share a meal with the men and learn about them as people; people who are loved by God, just like you and I. It gave me a whole new perspective on what it means to love the least of these.

Here are some photos from that night. If you are at all interested in serving the homeless in Rochester, fill out the interest form and the Northridge Serves team can get you connected to one of our partner organizations!


food, shelter, and services that help them on their journey toward self-sufficiency. food, shelter, and services that help them on their journey toward self-sufficiency.food, shelter, and services that help them on their journey toward self-sufficiency.