Congregation Shaare Emeth invites you to get involved with Room at the Inn
"How wonderful it is that no one need wait a single moment to start to improve the world." -Anne Frank
We at Shaare Emeth are proud to help the fight to end homelessness. On the first Monday of each month, Shaare Emeth hosts guests from Room at the Inn, an emergency shelter for homeless families and individuals. As a night site, we offer shelter, serve dinner and breakfast, and play with the guests' children so the parents have an opportunity to rest. All transportation is provided by Temple members.
How does Room at the Inn help?
In addition to emergency shelter, Room at the Inn works with clients to create an individualized plan back to self-sufficiency, including referrals to other human services agencies and mentoring to improve their chances for success.
Room at the Inn serves about 200 people per year.
What can YOU do to help?
We are in the process of revamping the program to make it even better and we cannot do this without help from you!
Volunteer Shifts
- Monday late afternoon: Drivers to transport guests from the Room at the Inn office in Bridgeton to Temple (Volunteers with mini vans are especially needed!)
- Tuesday morning: Drivers to transport guests from Temple to the Room at The Inn office in Bridgeton. (Volunteers with mini vans are especially needed!)
- Monday evening: Entertaining and playing with the children
- Monday evening: Preparing and serving dinner, eating with the guests and cleaning up after dinner
- Overnight: volunteers who will sleep at Temple Monday night, provide breakfast and (if needed) transportation Tuesday morning
Purchase items from the entertainment committee's wish list!
Our entertainment committee has some fun ideas to keep the children and teens entertained while they are here at Temple. We hope you will help us stock their supplies so our guests can have a fun and stress-free experience.
We have set up a registry through Target to collect the supplies.
Click here to access the registry and purchase from it. You may also purchase Target Scrip cards from the front desk at Shaare Emeth to donate to the project.
Donate Items
In addition to the Wish List, the committee can use the following items. Please only donate items in great condition. Due to very limited storage space and the time required to keep extra supplies organized, we will only accept the specific items on this list and only ones in great condition.
- Magazines such as People, Time, Family Circle, etc.
- DVDs for older children that are PG 13.
- Used Wii game system with all the pieces and parts and games
- Used PlayStation game system with all the parts and games
I want to help! How do I sign up?
If you are interested in driving, being a host or sleeping over please contact David Gerst at
[email protected].
If you are interested in contributing to dinner/breakfast, serving and cleaning up, please contact Barb Feldacker at
[email protected].
If you are interested in playing with the children, please contact Lisa Nixon at
[email protected].
General questions and concerns can be directed to Debbie Bram, Director of Jewish Life and Learning at [email protected].
Thanks so much for any help or donation big or small!
Your Room at The Inn Committee:
David Gerst, Barb Feldacker, Lisa Nixon, Karen Bland, Jen Rosenthal, Dana Sandweiss and Erin Schuver
