Cookeville First United Methodist Church expanding its outreach to the unhoused community in Putnam County by providing mobile showers and hot meals.
Director of Servant Ministries and Community Outreach Tamika Parker said the church began its mission years ago by providing blessing bags filled with portable food to neighbors in need. She said the program evolved after her assistant, Tennessee Tech’s Krissie Miranda, conducted studies that revealed a critical lack of access to food and hygiene services during the weekends.
“It’s about more than just a shower,” Parker said. “It’s about giving them some dignity and grace and just if you’ve seen individuals when they come to us and then when they come out of the shower, they just feel so much better. We know how much a shower means to us when we’ve not had one in a couple days, if we’ve been in the hospital, you know, it just makes you feel so much better.”
Parker said the church partnered with the Nashville-based organization Shower Up to bring a permanent mobile shower trailer to Cookeville. Parker said the service operates every Thursday from 10am-12:30pm, coinciding with a hot lunch program served at 11am.
Parker said the church is also working alongside Quality Linen Service in Cookeville who wash and sanitize the towels and Simply Smart Storage in Algood who store the trailer and truck used for the showers for free.
“It allows them to be able to get, you know, some things back, to go for interviews, to get out there, you know, and do some of the things, just to help with their physical health overall and different stuff like that,” Parker said. “It’s very important.”
The church provides hygiene kits containing shampoo, conditioner, body wash, toothpaste, and toothbrushes to those using the facilities. Parker said the ministry also distributes towels, washcloths, and fresh socks and underwear to participants.
“The population we deal with is very vulnerable, so we have to approach them with love and grace every time we deal with them,” Parker said. “So there’s a little bit of things we talk about on the front end so you can do this, but the guy that brought it to us out of Nashville, he has two teenage daughters and they can operate it by themselves. So if two teenage girls can operate it, anybody in the community can operate it.”
Parker said the church coordinates with several local partners, including the UCC Church, the Rescue Mission, and Plateau Mental Health Center, to ensure people are aware of the available resources. Parker said the program currently serves between 10 and 22 individuals each week, with openings for anyone in the community who wishes to volunteer.
“Cookeville has a large population of unhoused people growing by leaps and bounds, and that’s where our heart is and that’s the, you know, population that we’re really trying to reach,” Parker said. “People that like stay at the Rescue Mission, they have an opportunity to shower. If you’re at a halfway house, you have an opportunity to shower. So our goal population and target is totally for those people that are unhoused. You know, living in your vehicle, living in the tent camp back there, just hiding on the street somewhere, you know, things like that because those are the people that get overlooked so often.”
Parker said the ministry is currently seeking donations of travel-sized hygiene products and financial support to help maintain the mobile units.
