As many of you know, Abraham’s Tent is an emergency housing overflow program. It started 15 years ago when a cut in funding for the Columbus House shelter created a crisis in capacity in the middle of winter. In response to this emergency, Columbus House reached out to local faith communities. Rabbi Brockman proposed that congregations agree to house some shelter residents on a rotating basis during the winter months, and CMI was the first to open its doors.

Over the years, what began as an emergency program grew into a sustained volunteer effort, with close to 30 faith communities participating. CMI has participated every year and over the years, dozens, if not hundreds, of CMI volunteers have participated in preparing and serving food, socializing with the guests, and in countless other ways. Sadly, due to Covid, the program had to be suspended, but is now restarting after the 3-year pause.

Columbus House is running Abraham’s Tent differently this year. Rather than having the guests travel to a different congregation each week, the men will be staying at the Wallingford Emergency Shelter. The congregational volunteers will bring food and company to the shelter during their assigned weeks.

CMI’s assigned week is March 4-10, which is approaching quickly. As of now, we have a long way to go in recruiting the number of volunteers sufficient to meet our obligations. If you and/or your friends and family are able to and are interested in participating, please reach out to Aaron Singer. Ways that you can participate include being at the shelter each day around 4:30 to greet the guests, to cooking and serving dinners and desserts, to packing lunches, to being able just to socialize over dinner. Please consider getting involved in this opportunity to demonstrate CMI’s core value of Tikkun Olam.