They Are Forgotten-Hungry and Homeless in Eagle Butte South Dakota

The Story...
Imagine going home to sleep, but you have no house. If you are lucky you might have a tent or maybe a piece of cardboard to lay on, where owning a blanket is a luxury.
You lay down freezing to death, your body shakes because you are cold and hungry. You couldn’t eat today because there was no place open to feed you. You wake up the next morning with your only goal to find some place warm and hoping for something to eat.
Sounds like the beginning of third world country story doesn’t it…
Welcome to Eagle Butte South Dakota. Population 1,350 people. A beacon of civilization that is one hundred miles from nowhere. Eagle Butte is located on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation and located in one of the poorest counties in the United States, right here in South Dakota. Unemployment is high and the number of people homeless in this community is staggering. People can go days without eating. With inadequate shelters, people find themselves sleeping outdoors in -20 degree weather during the cold winter months. Some have even died from exposure while sleeping.
Eagle Butte is one hundred miles from Pierre South Dakota, the closest place that represents a small city. Eagle Butte is 300 miles from the states major metropolitan city of Sioux Falls. Yet it serves as the center of the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. An area covering 4,000 square miles of northern great plains.
Our society looks anxiously over the distant horizon to help others in need half a world away. Yet we ignore people in our own backyard who every day go hungry or are looking for a safe place to sleep. In urban cities there are shelters, missions and homes supported by the larger community. In larger cities there are simply more resources available to the homeless and hungry than in rural areas.
People of all races find their way to Eagle Butte looking for food, shelter, hope and a community. Desperate for a sustainable way of life. Too often the outside world’s view of life on the reservation is clouded. We think the tribes are funded with an abundance of money from the federal government. Natives are given monthly checks to live one. Housing is free for those on the reservation. Life is grand right? That couldn’t be further from the truth
Unemployment runs 80% or higher. Many communities are without adequate water systems. It is common for multiple families to occupy a home built for four people. Desperate homeless people will make their way into boarded up and abandoned structures just to escape the cold frigid weather. Then there is the challenge of getting food boxes and health services to those shut in or with no transportation in outlaying communities.
Life in remote rural communities like Eagle Butte can be harsh.-
Yet there is hope, there is pride, there is help. The Mustard Seed is a non-profit organization that was started in an effort to feed the people and provide temporary shelter from the cold. Today the Mustard Seed feeds on average, over 150 people per meal with that total reaching over 250 per meal by months end. It is difficult to find fresh and healthy food to serve the people. They have to fight with other organizations to even get day old bread left over from a local fast food restaurant. Some days there just simply is no food to serve the people.
On the off days that the Mustard Seed is closed, the volunteers will buy loafs of bread and peanut butter, going around the community to make sure the people are fed.
Currently the Mustard Seed serves from an old phone building that is inadequate and not hospitable for serving food or housing people. We are looking to the future of designing and building a facility that will allow us to serve hot meals, provide a safe haven during the day and temporary housing for the homeless. The facility will also help to provide jobs and volunteer positions in the community.
The Mustard Seed relies on donations from the community and churches, yet those donation fall way short.
We have the opportunity to help those living in a what seems to be a third world country right here in the USA. With your support we can help not to enable, but to empower a community of people to serve themselves. Your support can help to feed the hungry and give temporary shelter to those families needing a roof over their head. Your continued support in the future will help us to build a shelter that will benefit the community for future generations.
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Our Project: www.theyareforgotten.com
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