December 2023 Newsletter

Hearts for the Homeless® is part of the Buffalo Code Blue Collaborative where we work together with other ministries and nonprofits to provide evening meals for those who seek shelter during the cold winter nights. Over the last few years our partnership has grown from providing a limited number of meals to providing meals every Code Blue night and your partnership with Hearts helps make this possible. Our goal is to make sure that the homeless community and those in need who seek shelter during the freezing temperatures have a hot meal.

Code Blue is a lifesaving operation that provides shelter, food and supportive services to approximately 100-150 individuals living on the streets of Buffalo each night that the wind chill temperatures reach 32 degrees or below. Code Blue is the City of Buffalo’s emergency weather safety plan that provides outreach, transportation, shelter and a warm meal to Buffalo’s homeless population on evenings when the wind chill falls to 32 degrees or below from November 15 to March 15. This year’s Code Blue Shelters are located at: Restoration Society (RSI), 586 Genesee Street, Buffalo 14204 and soon, a new location at Salvation Army, 950 Main Street, Buffalo 14202. On a daily basis Code Blue is determined based on the National Weather Service forecast for Buffalo and is communicated by 211 of Western New York through a text message system. Code Blue is meant to serve homeless individuals and anyone in need. By providing Code Blue shelters in our community, we hope to eliminate weather related deaths of individuals who are unhoused. During the 2022-2023 Code Blue season, 1,439 unique individuals were served who would have otherwise had no place to go. This year Hearts expects to serve thousands of meals and we need your help. Please consider ending your year with impact by donating to this life saving initiative. Please help Hearts provide an additional 100-150 meals a night for Code Blue.