BRATTLEBORO — We greatly appreciate your fine paper, and are particularly encouraged by the frequent social-justice-related stories.
However, the editorial "The cold and the hungry this winter" contained some unfortunate errors and misleading information.
First, it is wonderful that you highlighted all the organizations that provide food or meals to the area's poor - we greatly appreciate the excellent work these organizations do, and it is great that you are bringing their important contributions to people's attention.
However, the article recounts a touching story about a person in Brattleboro who is homeless and sleeping in the cold, and then refers to the listed organizations as "shelters."
In fact, none of the organizations you list are shelters. As you will notice by the hours listed next to each organization, none are even open at night, and most only operate for a few hours once or twice a week. Some are soup kitchens, some are food pantries.
The one overnight homeless shelter in this area, Morningside Shelter, is inexplicably missing from the list.
Morningside is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and is the only organization that I am aware of in Brattleboro that currently provides a warm place for homeless people to sleep, as well as food, clothing, and intensive personalized case management daily to help people successfully address the root causes that have led them to be homeless in the first place.