With cold temperatures moving into Northeast Georgia over the weekend and expected to continue throughout next week, Good News at Noon has opened a warming station on the west side of Gainesville.
The station is located at 881 Dorsey Street, across the street from the campus of Good News at Noon Homeless and Transitional Resident Center, and is intended to provide a safe, warm place to stay for the homeless or those who don't have a place to stay. The station opened Friday night with temperatures in Gainesville dipping below freezing and the station is expected to be open every night next week as even colder temperatures move in.
Jerry Deyton with Good News at Noon says the center usually opens around 7:00 each night.
"We open up and we stay until in the morning when it starts warming up enough that you can go back out," Deyton said. "We do not do any kind of cooking there, but we do have a big huge coffee pot and we do make coffee and we provide them with a breakfast bar in the morning, just to get them going through the day."
Deyton said that Good News at Noon provides lunch and dinner meals during the week.
Good News at Noon has provided warming centers in Gainesville in years past, but Deyton said they've received additional help this year to improve the center's services.
"A few other ministries have stepped in to help us a little bit. We had one ministry step in and give us 50 army cots. The Jackson County Jail gave us 35 mats to lay in the floor," Deyton said. "We've got a couple of big, huge boxes of blankets and stuff that's been donated to us, so we're kind of set in that way. The city has also stepped in and is helping out with some of the bills and utilities."
Deyton said the goal of the center is to help people get through these difficult cold snaps during the winter.
"Just to have a place for people to go, because we don't want them to be out there on the street," Deyton said. "Once it gets below 32 degrees and you get wet, it's dangerous for somebody to be out there."
More information about Good News at Noon can be found on the ministry's website.
