Over the past three years, Amber Scott has worked tirelessly on behalf of the homeless community here in Central Arkansas through her “Serve on the Streets” ministry as a member of Grace Church in Little Rock. During that time she and other volunteers at Grace Church have prepared and delivered nourishing meals every Friday evening to the inhabitants of 18 different homeless “camps” in the Central Arkansas area.
Initially, Amber would go out every Friday night, taking meals to homeless people that either she herself had prepared, or by asking other volunteers in her church if they could prepare a dinner that would feed up to 100 people, however, “Serve on the Streets” started running into issues obtaining the food they needed efficiently and at the quantity they need to be effective. It was around this time that George Wilkerson first shared his dream of providing homeless individuals and families with nourishing meals in the memory of his late son Aaron. Once Aaron Meals was born it was able to solve those problems by devising a more sustainable plan that would result in feeding at least 100 people every Friday. According to Amber, “Our plan has worked wonderfully since we came together. Being able to partner with Aaron Meals, and to go pick up healthy and nutritious meals that local food trucks and restaurants have prepared, allows us to give these people much more than we had originally planned."
Today, between 15 and 20 volunteers go out with Amber every Friday to deliver the meals to people in need. “Now that football season is over, many of our church youth are eager to help out with our meal deliveries,” Amber says. “Currently, Two Sisters Catering is providing our meals. They are all super sweet people and call us midweek to let us know what they’ll be preparing for our Friday meal deliveries.” Today, the number of meals delivered on Friday night ranges from 110 up to 150. On most Friday nights, Amber and her other volunteers begin their deliveries at 5:30 p.m. and their work takes until 11:30 p.m. or 12:00 a.m. before they finish.
The homeless camps are spread out across the Little Rock/North Little Rock area, ranging from west and southwest Little Rock to the parks downtown and in North Little Rock.
Amber and her volunteers do more than simply deliver meals. Over time, they have become close to their regular meal recipients. “Most of these people we’ve known now for about three years. We just sit and talk to them like the friends and family they’ve become to us. We see them so much that I jokingly say that we see these people more than we see our own families!”
“I’m so thrilled to be able to volunteer and partner with Aaron Meals to fulfill my mission for the Church and to spread Aaron’s name and the legacy he represents,” Amber says. “And we’ll continue to spread the word so others in our community who would like to take part in our mission will have the chance to do so.”