Fresno volunteers plan shoe drive and foot-washing for homeless residents
Volunteers have 150 pairs of shoes and still need 150 more before a July 11 foot-washing at Poverello House. Donations are accepted through July 6 in Sanger and Fresno.
Volunteers for MessN2message have collected about 150 pairs of shoes for Fresno residents experiencing homelessness or hardship, but they still need about 150 more to reach their goal before the July 11 shoe drive and foot-washing at Poverello House. Donations are being accepted through July 6 at Set Free Sanger Church and 21Pathways, and organizers are still asking for socks, undergarments, hygiene products, pedicure kits, Narcan and food.
Samantha Sills started the effort after seeing several people walking barefoot during a brutally hot Fresno summer day in 2024. What began as a response to that scene has become the group’s third annual shoe drive and foot-washing service, organized by MessN2message with support from 21 Pathways, Set Free Sanger, Fleet Feet and Daniel Chase Enterprise.
The service is scheduled for July 11 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Poverello House in Fresno. Last year, the group distributed more than 120 pairs of shoes, and by 2025 the effort had grown enough to serve roughly 250 people. Organizers have also pointed to the practical stakes of outreach work: they said the team’s last box of Narcan was used to save the life of someone overdosing nearby.
The drive comes as Fresno County continues to track homelessness through its response data hub, which follows Fresno-Madera Continuum of Care point-in-time counts from 2015 to 2024. The region’s 2025 count showed 4,905 people experiencing homelessness, a 9.2% increase from 2023, including 3,042 unsheltered people and 1,863 sheltered.
Poverello House, where the event will be held, says it serves three hot meals every day of the year and about 2,600 meals daily. The nonprofit also provides clothing distribution, emergency food bags, a medical clinic, rehabilitation services, temporary shelter and social services, all of which have become part of the daily safety net for people moving through Fresno’s homelessness crisis.
The need is amplified by heat. Fresno County public health officials warned in June 2024 that extreme heat significantly increases the risk of heat-related illness, especially for people outdoors, making shoes, socks and foot care especially urgent in the Central Valley summer.
The Fresno-Madera Continuum of Care says its mission is to help people move from homelessness into housing, education, health and mental-health services, employment training and life-skills development. At Poverello House, the shoe drive and foot-washing will fold a basic act of care into that larger system, one pair of shoes at a time.
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