May 14, 2924

Since January, CAA volunteers have been serving delicious vegan meals at Simpson Housing. This initiative helps to ensure that residents of Simpson Housing get nutritious meals — and it was all started by our dedicated volunteers!

The program has been a huge success, with volunteer spots filling up quickly, and appreciative residents who love the meals. But, to keep this program going, we are asking for help from our community.

Coordinating and advertising the meal services comes with some staffing costs, and supplies for each meal served comes in around $4 per person. We would love to be able to continue to offer this program for our Minneapolis neighbors. You can contribute and make a difference in the lives of unhoused individuals today. Our goal is to continue to provide a monthly meal through the end of the year, and we’d love to keep going into next year too!

Your support is so greatly appreciated. But don’t take it from us. Check out what some of our volunteers have to say about this amazing program!

A message from Nicola Philpott, CAA volunteer

I’ve always enjoyed cooking for other people. Nothing too fancy, just some delicious home-cooked food with fresh ingredients. When I moved back to the Twin Cities last year I looked for somewhere to cook food — but without formal training, my options were limited. Then I found Simpson Housing Services.

Simpson was looking for prep cooks to volunteer to help the chef prepare meals for shelter guests. The Simpson website even mentions that prep cooks can contribute new recipe ideas to the menu. This seemed like a great opportunity to share some tasty plant-based food with people who need it.

Every day, Simpson provides beds for 66 people who are experiencing homelessness. For 365 days a year, the shelter guests have access to three daily meals. Quite a few of the lunches and dinners are purchased, prepared, and served by volunteer groups.If I was going to provide my own plant-based meal here, I needed to find some fellow vegans to help.

I reached out to Abbey, CAA’s Program Manager, who I met at CAA’s July 4th potluck, and Jesse, who I met at the CAA bike crawl. Both were really excited to give it a go!With the backing of CAA’s Executive Director, Laura Matanah, and the CAA board, we started providing monthly meals at Simpson in January.

So far, we’ve served over 150 meals. The staff really appreciate our consistency in providing a meal every month and the guests love our food! We know this because they often come back for seconds.

Working with other CAA volunteers to prepare and serve delicious, healthy plant-based meals at Simpson is one of my favorite CAA activities. We’re sharing some vegan love with our Minneapolis community!

Please consider joining me in donating to our program to provide vegan meals for unhoused people. We’d love to continue preparing and serving plant-based food at Simpson through the rest of this year and into 2025. Help me feed people Thank you!

A message from Anna Larsson and Magnus Larsson, CAA volunteers

“It’s good to have fresh-tasting food,” a Simpson Housing guest said to me. I was eating lunch with him after working with other CAA volunteers to cook a meal that included a delicious taco pasta salad. Another time, many guests commented on how tasty the sweet potato-based nacho sauce was that we had prepared to accompany enchiladas. We had made it from scratch with fresh, wholesome, healthy ingredients.

The guests at Simpson Housing live in a temporary, transitional shelter and they don’t have access to their own cooking facilities. They rely on volunteer groups like us to provide meals. Knowing how much my family appreciates fresh meals, I am happy to be able to offer these guests the same opportunity for a fresh, healthy, quality meal.

My teenage son, Magnus, and I have volunteered for CAA’s meal preparation at Simpson Housing several times and we plan to keep coming back. It’s a fun and gratifying way for us to get more vegan food into the world. And it feels good knowing that Simpson Housing guests appreciate the meals we serve. Please join us in donating to the Simpson Housing fundraiser to cover the cost of these meals. Doesn’t everyone deserve fresh-tasting, healthy food?

Volunteer with us at Simpson Housing

If you would also like to volunteer to prepare and serve meals at Simpson, check out our event page for the next opportunity and sign up. Right now the next one is June 3.

Get involved at other Compassionate Action for Animals (CAA) events!

Compassionate Action for Animals (CAA) hosts many events throughout the year, including Twin Cities Veg Fest, Vegan Recipe Club, cooking classes, potlucks, outreach events, and so much more! If you can’t make this event, or just want to know about other opportunities to get involved with CAA, we’ve got so many ways to connect with the community, enjoy vegan food, and make a difference. Visit our volunteer page to see all opportunities!