John Tumino

Big thank you to Katrina, Steve and Team for Carrying IMFK’s Taste and See Syrup and Sauce. It’s Eating with a Purpose stop in say hello and pick up a Jug and a Jar. #TasteandSee

Today we were able to meet a new friend who is experiencing homelessness. We received multiple calls from a local business who was concerned for the safety of  a very friendly homeless individual residing behind their establishment. Our team was able to engage and introduce ourselves  and ask about his story. As we were talking I noticed an abscess on our friends hand and asked if Doctor Lehmann could take a look at it. He allowed Doc to examine him and proceeded to inform us that heroine is his drug of choice and that he wanted to be free from it. Doc asked if he would be interested in taking Suboxone as well as us making an appointment with Doctor Johnson and Doctor Aslam from Upstate Rehabilitation. Our friend was all in and so appreciative. Tomorrow he will meet with JD and Kat (IMFK Care Managers) to start housing intake paper work and JD will be transporting him up to the clinic to meet the medical team for treatment. JD has committed to being his sober support while he moves through this new journey of life. I love first contacts with new friends, you never know what your going to experience. Todays encounter was beautiful and we are looking forward to our friends transformation off of heroine. Thank you everyone for your continued support  of our Mission

We introduced you to John our homeless friend last week. JD (IMFK Care Manager) is a Marine and so is our friend John. During street outreach John reached out to Dr. Lehmann who does House Calls for the Homeless and asked for assistance with navigating his meds. Our dear friend is a diabetic and has been running high sugars for some time which is a major concern for someone with diabetes. Leigh Ann (Co-Founder of IMFK) is also a diabetic and we know the challenges of navigating this illness and cant even image trying to do so living outdoors. Doc was able to call in scripts for insulin as well as some other important meds that were needed. Pictured here is Doc doing a follow up visit to make sure John was doing well and to ask if he had any questions. The challenge for someone surviving homelessness is transportation as well as consistent reliable phone service to communicate with a PCP. Doc becomes that PCP at street level and brings compassionate care to all our friends outdoors on a consistent basis. John has been reconnected to Veteran services and JD is assisting him through that process. Our approach is total rap around care from food, clothing, medical care and hard core advocacy. Being a Voice for those who feel Like they HAVE NO VOICE is very important in showing our friends that we are truly there for them. With your continual support we are able to Build Hope and Change Lives and on behalf of all our friends we say THANK YOU!

Our Dear friend Tom is indoors! We met Tom back in June of 2015 living outdoors and panhandling off the interstate. Its been an up and down journey with our friend but we kept pushing in by showing him unconditional love whether it came through clothing, food or medical attention with Dr. Lehmann. Tom is a very resilient individual who was determined to live out his existence outdoors. Tom is a survivor and had himself set up with a generator, shelter and all the things to live in the woods. In late fall his shelter was exposed and visible due to the fact that the Trees lost there leaves. A State D.O.T worker came across his campsite and reached out to IMFK to see if we were aware of the individual. They were concerned for his safety now that his camp was exposed to motorist on the interstate. We approached Tom at that time to reconsider housing options, he agreed and the journey started back in October. Tom moved his campsite deeper into the woods to be safe from others. Kat (IMFK Care Manager) did all the housing paperwork with Tom and added him to the housing list. Tom was finally matched with a Provider in April and received his keys to his own apartment yesterday! It has been 6 years in the making which is a long time but we always need to wait for our friends to be ready. Building Relationships allows us to continue the visits with our friends so that when they finally become ready we are standing right in front of them when their surrender moment happens. With your continued support Sous Chef  days like this would not be possible. 

Thank You 

John, Leigh Ann and the IMFK Team

Investing in our friends who are making strides is very important when assisting individuals who have done a 180 degree turn in life. Kdog going on 5 months of sobriety has been a beautiful thing to watch. He is now sober in his own housing and giving back to his community. Today he is doing some scraping of our IMFK store front getting it ready for primer and some fresh paint. We surprised him with this new bike so he can get around town to appointments as well as being able to visit us at IMFK. This bike was given to us over a year ago by a Sous Chef who overcame his own addiction. He wanted us to be able to give it to someone who was making a positive change. Well we are blessed to be able to be a blessing to Kdog