One of our most popular programs is our weekly visits to the Labor Halls. Many of the guys that we serve in the shelters cannot secure gainful employment for many reasons. For some, it may be because of a bad job history, while for others it may be a lack of skills or the absence of transportation. Regardless, we have found that many guys resort to working day labor jobs at Labor Ready.
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Labor Ready is a place where big companies (usually construction companies) can hire temporary workers to help them on a particular job. For instance, K-mart might be opening a new store and will need about 20 workers one day to come and help them unload their trucks and get things ready. The job may last one day, or a week, but it usually won’t go much longer than that. Now after the guys work that day, they can come back to Labor Ready and get paid for that job. Usually, a person would get paid about $6.25 per hour, so if you work 8 hours, you will most likely get a check for less than $40.
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Now most of the men and women that work these jobs do not have a lot of money, and they have to be at Labor Ready by 5:45 AM to wait to even see if there are any jobs open. If there are not enough jobs, you just don’t work that day.
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In 2005, God led us to the Labor Halls. So we started waking up really early and cooking a hot meal and then taking it down and serving all the men and women that braved the early morning hours to work. We decided to make breakfast burritos with ham, egg, cheese, and potatoes. To quote a guy from the Labor Halls this week, they are simply “Delicious!”
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Currently, we are meeting at Bellefield Presbyterian Church and cooking this wonderful meal. We give thanks to God because we have not had to do this all by ourselves. We have a great group of volunteers that come to help us on a rotating basis.
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After making the breakfast, we drive down to Labor Ready and serve the men and women there. After everyone has been served, we have a Bible Study outside for anyone who wants to come. These past few weeks we have been getting around 5 people to come which is great! On most Thursdays, we make 60 breakfast sandwiches and serve approximately 50 people at Labor Ready on the Northside and in Wilkinsburg.
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God has blessed us tremendously as we have served Him at Labor Ready. We look forward to more opportunities to be able to serve and possibly expanding this program to even more Labor Halls throughout the city.