WORCESTER  — A non-profit organization based in North Central Massachusetts is putting together “clean and warm kits” for the homeless who are likely to be hard hit by the upcoming winter season. 

MEAVE North Central MA, is a chapter of MEAVE, a nationwide non-profit organization of mothers who support one another and their communities. MEAVE stands for “Motherhood. Alliance. Equity. Village.” According to Holli Hepburn, MEAVE North Central MA’s president, the national chapter began last year and the North Central MA chapter began about a month ago.

“The North Central MA chapter began accepting members in August. So, MEAVE itself has only been around for a month here, but this group of families has been around for several years, we have just been under previous names as MCMA Parents and before that we were MOMS Club of Lancaster and Sterling.”

If you are interested in joining MEAVE, you don’t have to be a mother either. 

“We accept anyone who is a caretaker, whether you are a mother, father, uncle. They call it the work of mothering in a sort of anthropological sense,” said Hepburn.

The “clean and warm kits” are MEAVE North Central MA’s October service project. Hepburn said the idea for the kits came from their service chair, Karen Tadry, who is a registered respiratory therapist at St. Vincent’s Hospital who noticed that the homeless come to the ER frequently with weather related emergencies, such as hypothermia.

“[She] has noticed that when the homeless come into the ER to get treated, they are essentially treated and sent out on their way back out onto the streets and we wanted to do something that we could send out with them,” said Hepburn. 

The organization has an Amazon wish list for their kits that includes: travel kits for men and women, gloves, hats, hand sanitizer, and peanut butter crackers, among other things. 

There’s also a drop box for items at 10 Bean Road in Sterling. The kits are going to be donated to Saint Vincent Hospital. Hepburn said that MEAVE North Central MA is looking for more Worcester area hospitals to partner with as well. 

To see their wish list, please go to: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1QX73FZK3M5Y2