Serving the streets of Tacoma since 1995.
Building relationships with people experiencing homelessness and providing food, vitamins, socks, bus tickets, sleeping bags, blankets and work boots.
Services
What We Do
We meet people on the streets and at our door. During the pandemic we are going to people in cars and tents while also continuing to provide warmth and food from our front porch.
As we did before the pandemic, we are giving people sandwiches, Gatorade, fruit, chips, trail bars, cookies, chocolate, fruit, vitamins along with blankets, sleeping bags, tarps, bus tickets and work boots donated by Red Wing Shoes. Our new additions during the pandemic have been shower wipes and disposable masks.
We will return to gathering at specific spots in order to serve oatmeal and coffee on the streets when it is safe to gather in large groups.
Our Volunteers
Our Meetings Only Take Place on the Streets
36
sandwich makers
4
churches
2
schools
6
street volunteers during the pandemic
How you can help for now.
We need blankets, sleeping bags, tarps, white knee-length sports socks, individually wrapped snacks, Costco gift cards. We need donations but please be aware that we are not a 501(c)3. Registered as a business in Washington, we pay taxes on all funds received.
- Financial Donations and Costco Gift Cards
- Clean Blankets, Sleeping Bags and Tarps
- White Crew Socks
- Chips, 8 oz Gatorade, Individually Wrapped Trail Bars and Cookies, Bananas and Oranges.
A Little Deeper
Our Favorite Stories
How We Started
One stormy, snowy night in 1995, Michael Sterbick heard a voice, “They’re cold.” And so he stood on the corner of 15th and Tacoma Ave. yelling that he had things for warmth. A woman crawled out of one of the caves from under a Tacoma Ave. sidewalk so she could get a cap and gloves.
The next day Michael went to stores buying long underwear, blankets, and more gloves, hats and scarves. Operation Keep ‘Em Warm was born. Soon, other needs became apparent–food, preferably warm–in the morning. And others joined him in the effort to build trust and bring warmth. Demetra Schwieger traveled with him on the streets in the morning. Lynda Flanagan began rallying St. Leo Parish to support the effort. Finally, Demetra’s daughter Clare said the name should change to reflect the growing ministry. That is how it came to be called Operation Keep ‘Em Warm and Fed.
Operation Keep Em Warm and Fed grew to serve coffee, juice, hot oatmeal, sandwiches, vitamins, chips, cookies every Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings regardless of weather or holiday. (See our Since the Pandemic post to know how we have tweaked our activities.) Once a month, Michael distributes socks and now bus tickets. Blankets, tarps, gloves, hats and scarves are still given out at night in winter and also from the house year-round. The numbers of those serving people on the streets have grown. Students from Bellarmine and St. Patrick’s along with St. Leo, St. Patrick, St. Theresa and St. Nicholas Parish volunteers have served on the streets. Volunteers from St. Leo Parish and St. Theresa make sandwiches to be distributed.
In 1997, Michael had become a Catholic Worker and continued the ministry with the community’s support. Space being a premium at Guadalupe House, he began storing items around Tacoma for the Operation. In 2000, the Rousseu-Chouinard family donated their sister Mary’s home on G Street to the Catholic Worker community with the stipulation that it would serve Operation Keep ‘Em Warm and Fed. After several years of renovation Michael and his wife Dotti moved into the house in 2005. Today supplies, including work boots donated from Red Wing shoes, are stored here. Boots, blankets, tarps, hats, scarves and gloves are kept available for those who drop by needing them.
Michael and the other volunteers have discovered that more important than the things given away is the trust and welcome people feel by a warm handshake and smile. They are even more important than what is given away.
Operation Keep 'Em Warm and Fed 