Homeless individuals living in Del Norte County are collecting thousands of pounds of trash each month and trading it in for survival gear.
The winter shelter-in-place project through the nonprofit dedicated to homeless outreach, Mission Possible, provides garbage bags to homeless individuals, who then can fill those garbage bags with trash they find and trade them in for food, clean clothes and other essential items. If they turn in trash for four consecutive weeks, they receive some neat survival gear, including a pocket-sized tent and a hand-warming phone charger. Last week, homeless individuals turned in 1,960 pounds of garbage, said Daphne Cortese-Lambert, founder and executive director of Mission Possible.
DN Mission Possible s Shelter-in-Place Program Reaches The Hard-To-Reach
Daphne Cortese-Lambert collects bags of trash Thursday from those who live in local homeless encampments. Photo: Jessica Cejnar
Anthony Hatfield distracted his pup Skipper long enough to put a handful of groceries in an already full backpack.
He still juggled a loaf of bread, a tarp and some dog food, but didn’t say no to whatever Daphne Cortese-Lambert and her volunteers at Del Norte Mission Possible offered.
“Anything I don’t use I’ll share with other people,” he said on a drizzly Thursday afternoon outside the Park City Superette.
The little market at the corner of Elk Valley and Howland Hill roads near Crescent City was the final stop of the day for DNMP’s new Winter Shelter-in-Place Project. For the past four weeks, volunteers have reached out to roughly 215 people, providing tarps, raincoats, food and garbage bags.