A small ministry that feeds two dozen homeless people in a park once a week is fighting a City of Phoenix ordinance that would severely limit its food distribution.
St. Herman’s Table, founded by Orthodox minister Lance Brace, goes to Cave Creek Park in Phoenix every Thursday to provide food, water, hygiene products and Bibles. The group also prays with attendees and shares information about the Orthodox church with the roughly 12 to 25 people who gather.
The ministry — staffed by a handful of volunteers — has never been cited by the city and has never been the subject of a complaint, according to court documents. Nevertheless, the city passed a “Medical Treatment and Food Distribution in Parks” ordinance in May that would severely limit the St. Herman’s Table’s ongoing work.
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With the help of the Christian Legal Society (CLS), St. Herman’s filed a federal lawsuit and won a temporary restraining order June 10, preventing enforcement of the ordinance for 14 days and allowing volunteers to continue their feeding ministry.
While CLS and St. Herman’s are grateful for the brief reprieve, they remain concerned about the ordinance’s long-term implications.
The City of Phoenix acknowledged in the ordinance that ministries like St. Herman’s Table “align with the city’s overall aspirations,” but claimed their activities also create “large crowds, increased noise, obstruction of public spaces, litter, and the accumulation of trash, debris, and food waste.”
Because the matter is part of litigation, the city declined to answer specific questions about which parks were experiencing the problems cited in the ordinance or how long those problems had been occurring.
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Kim Roberts and originally published by MinistryWatch.
