Everyone is invited to learn about ideas for reducing child homelessness at the Coalition of Religious Communities preview of the 2021  session of the Utah Legislature.  This event will take place  on January 13, 2021 at 10:30 AM on Facebook Live.  Speakers will include faith leaders, national policy experts and state legislators.

We are pleased to announce that our introductory speaker will be Bishop Karen P. Oliveto of the Mountain Sky Conference of the United Methodist Church. The full agenda has not been finalized but we will be building on the recommendations from the report on child homelessness that we released in September.  

The legislative preview will be broadcast on Facebook Live:
www.facebook.com/crossroadsurbancenter

We are pleased to announce that the new director of our historic emergency food pantry in downtown Salt Lake City will be Matt Minkevitch.  Matt is replacing long time pantry director Rachel Fishbein, who is retiring at the end of this year.

"We are excited to have Matt on our team at Crossroads," said Executive Director Glenn Bailey. “His decades of experience in emergency food and services for people experiencing homelessness will help us to not only continue to meet the needs of people coming to us for help, but to build new and effective programs for the future."

We asked Matt for a comment for this post and here is what he had to say, "I am elated to be welcomed into this remarkable team. For decades Crossroads has served as a beacon of service and advocacy for our community. I look forward to doing my part to serve each person who turns to us in their moment of need."

Welcome to the team, Matt!

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Since Crossroads Urban Center was founded in 1966 only a handful of people have served as director for our food pantry.  The third of those people, Rachel Fishbein, will be retiring at the end of this year after providing solid leadership for twenty years.  We will miss her commitment, consistency and compassion.

We are moving our annual Thanksgiving Turkey Giveaway outdoors this year.  The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down the economy and increased unemployment, uncertainty and the number of families that need help this holiday season.  We are very grateful that hundreds of volunteers and other supporters have stepped up again this year to help serve some of those families at our annual Thanksgiving Food Giveaway.  

To help reduce spread of COVID-19 we are holding the entire Giveaway outdoors, at the Smith's Ballpark Parking Lot located at the corner of 1300 South and West Temple.  Families that are able to drive to the Giveaway will pull into the parking lot on West Temple at Paxton Avenue and have a turkey and sides placed into the trunk of the their cars.   This should allow us to serve up to 3,500 families while maintaining social distancing.