Welcome Home of Chattanooga provides a community of hope, healing, and compassion for those facing a serious illness or death with a comfortable living space and family-type care.
Individuals, families, and groups currently provide dinner for residents living at Welcome Home of Chattanooga. The love and compassion of the volunteers providing meals save Welcome Home over $10,000 annually and help residents feel welcomed and that someone cares.
As Welcome Home expands its reach and services in the Chattanooga area to assist more residents, more volunteers will be needed. Volunteers can sign up for the dinner club by reaching out through welcomehomeofchattanooga.org.
The organization’s dinner club allows families, churches, and restaurants to bring a meal to residents one night a month. As a result, nearly every night of the month, Welcome Home has a community dinner that allows residents, staff, and volunteers to eat together.
Due to the pandemic, adjustments have been made with the dinner club; many volunteers now drop dinner off or have dinner delivered. Executive Director Sherry Campbell says the dinner club started organically with a few volunteers providing meals a couple of nights a week. She says it has now become an essential part of their daily routine.
“All of us have experienced loneliness and loss of connection, and it’s important to know that we’re part of a bigger community than just ourselves. There are people who care and love us. That’s what our dinner club is about. We sit around the table, tell life stories, talk about our favorite bands and music, and tease each other. It’s all about creating fellowship,” said Campbell.
Fellowship is why volunteer Christie Petty got involved with Welcome Home of Chattanooga four years ago. “All of my family is in Ohio, and my kids are out of the house. I’m a very social person, and I love having the company of the residents,” said Petty.
She heard about the nonprofit through a resident who stopped by her job. “I believe that God sent him to me. He told me that he was staying at Welcome Home and told me everything the staff was doing for him. Then he told me he was terminally ill. I immediately went to look up the nonprofit to find a way to help. I’m not sure who benefits from this club more, the residents or me.”
She provides two meals per month.
More about Welcome Home of Chattanooga:
Welcome Home of Chattanooga is in the process of expanding to house ten residents on Quiet Creek Trail eventually. Phase two of the construction project will begin at the end of January. The project will cost about $500,000. If you would like to donate or volunteer to help with the expansion, you can do so online at welcomehomeofchattanooga.org.