It began with an invitation to attend a Valentine’s Day dinner at Emilie UMC in Feb, 2009. Several members of the congregation knew of the homeless encampment by the canal in Levittown and had befriended the residents.  The invitation was delivered.  The dinner was well attended but only 4 or 5 homeless friends, the ones that had received a ride!   

With a lot of food left over it was suggested that the dinner be delivered to the camps.  Several car trunks were packed with food and caravanned down to the encampment located behind the 7-11 at Edgley Road and Route 13.  With the local police offering support from across the street the dinners were unloaded and slowly our homeless friends came up from the canal.  Ironically, this is now a pickup spot for several AHTN missions.  That night was a wake up call to AHTN Program Director, Penny Martin, that God was calling her to do something to help those in need in her community.

 Pastor Don Richards, a “retired” pastor and member of Emilie UMC had been going to the encampments, building trust and relationships with the chronic homeless for some time. He shared his fellowship experiences and needs of our homeless brothers and sisters with several of members of Emilie. Penny Martin started monthly meetings at Emilie UMC, inviting other area churches and organizations to attend.  At one of the meetings, Reach Out Foundation (ROF) of Morrisville stated that Bucks County was the only county in the tri-state area that did not have a Code Blue program.  Code Blue refers to extreme cold temperatures. Each county sets its own definition. ROF had tried to get the county to establish a Code Blue Program and had contacted many churches on their own the previous winter season of 2008, but did not have any success.