St. Petersburg, FL (September 31, 2018) – After 35 years of service to the homeless and economically challenged Downtown, St. Petersburg’s Daystar Life Center is poised to make a move.
Please join us on Saturday, September 8 at 9:30 am, as community leaders, Daystar Life volunteers, and new neighbors help to ceremonially break ground on the organization’s new home at 1055 28th Street South (just south of I-275 and right across the street from the Thomas ‘Jet’ Jackson Recreation Center).
Since 1982, the Daystar Life Center has been providing the basic necessities of life on an emergency basis to our neighbors in need in order to stabilize their lives, to prevent hunger and hopelessness. Most clients live below the federal poverty level. They are the working poor or unemployed. Ongoing help is available for individuals and families who are food-insecure; struggling to stay in their home, in transitional housing, or homeless.
But the cramped 4000 square foot facility at 226 6th Street South has been bursting at the seams. A community-wide search identified available land in Midtown, and so the planning to build a bigger, better structure began.
“This move will help us expand our services and provide more hope for our neighbors,” said Executive Director Jane Walker. “The new facility has been years in the making, but with a donation of over $1.5 million by Daystar Life Board Member Kevin Milkey, his wife Jeanne, and family, it is finally becoming a reality.”
The new building will house expanded services, ranging from a “choice pantry,” where clients can choose healthy food to prepare at home, to a demonstration kitchen, with cooking classes that can help bring a creative energy to preparing those fresh meals. An expanded clothes closet and new training rooms will offer clients access to even more resources.
Daystar Life Center, Inc. is an IRS 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Recently honored with a “four star” award from Charity Navigator for financial accountability and transparency. Thanks to a committed core of over 200 volunteers, and a very small paid staff, the Daystar Life Center is able to devote 95% of all income to program services, with less than 5% on fundraising and administration.