Offering food – and hope – during the holidays

He showed up last February with frostbite – a consequence of living in a van through a harsh winter in Newton.

His weight was down to about 135 pounds, and doctors at the hospital told Ricky they didn’t want him living in his van anymore.

The Union Rescue Mission was the only place in the area that had space for him, and he took it because he didn’t really have a choice.

Nine months later, Ricky Henderson couldn’t wipe the smile off of his face as he watched Wichita police officers and fellow members of the mission’s New Beginnings program load up holiday food boxes for families in need.

He knows those boxes offer something he’d lost while living on the streets: hope.

“It’s an exciting day,” Henderson, 51, said Monday at the mission he’s called home since his arrival last February. “I’ve come a long ways.”

Officers delivered food for Thanksgiving to more than 100 families around Wichita on Monday. The families were nominated by officers who came into contact with them over the course of the past year.

The boxes included frozen turkeys, peas and green beans, mashed potatoes, yams, stuffing, macaroni and cheese, tuna, turkey gravy and even a pie.

“They’re in the shape that a lot of us were,” Ricky said of the families who received the boxes.

Helping with the holiday food distribution was one way to give back, Ricky and others in the New Beginnings program said. New Beginnings is a long-term residential recovery program from homelessness, lasting as long as 12 months.

“Without them, I don’t think I’d have made it,” Ricky said. “I’d been back out there” on the streets “and I probably wouldn’t have made it.”

Men enrolled in the New Beginnings program helped officers deliver the meals, and 22-year-old Kenny Birkey couldn’t wait for his turn.

“I want to go on a ride-along,” Birkey said, adding that a guy he knew who helped at past holiday food distributions “got to go on a high-speed chase.”

But Birkey said he welcomed the chance to help others through the distribution.

“There’s nothing wrong with getting your hands dirty a little bit – get some dirt under your fingernails,” he said.

Officer Troy Bussard could barely contain his enthusiasm as he waited for other officers to arrive and pick up food. He’s been helping for several of the event’s 11 years, he said, and it’s one of his favorite days of the year.

“We see people at times when they’re having the worst moment in their lives,” he said.

The holiday meals distribution allows officers to bring good news to people for a change, he said.

“It’s one way we can help give back,” Bussard said.

The mission plans to deliver more holiday food boxes at Christmas.

This story was originally published November 24, 2014 at 12:15 PM with the headline "Offering food – and hope – during the holidays."