Mental Health Resources

Please consider donating to MHR to help us continue to provide essential meals to people with serious and persistent mental illness at our Seward Community Support Program/Drop In Center. 

Nutrition services are a very important aspect of the welcoming and health-promoting atmosphere at the Seward CSP.   Approximately 70 people with serious mental illness (CSP members) visit the CSP each day. The CSP provides a light meal to these individuals each open day and a festive dinner once a month that attracts large numbers of members. CSP members, along with MHR staff, prepare the food served in the CSP’s kitchen. For most CSP members, the food they eat at the CSP is the healthiest meal they eat all day, and for the approximately 30% of our visitors who are homeless at any point, it is sometimes the only meal. Having that one reliable healthy meal at the Seward CSP a day is the foundation of better mental and physical health through nutrition for our 350 Seward CSP members. The CSP has also been sponsoring monthly Cooking Demos that help members get new ideas and skills for preparing easy, tasty and healthy meals at home. When CSP members prepare and share snacks and meals in the CSP communal kitchen, they meet a fundamental human need for both healthy food and positive human interactions.  The CSP would not be the same place without the daily meals and snacks it provides to people who are hungry both for a meal and for companionship.   

Here is what one of the individuals had to say about the difference the meals at the CSP make for him. 

“My social security is a very low number because I got disabled very early in my working career and I don’t have much money to spend on food.  I count on this (CSP food) for my supper. Sometimes I can buy things to supplement like apples and different things. I wouldn’t have much for supper if the CSP food wasn’t available. Also, my kitchen is so small that I don’t cook for myself, and I wouldn’t have a very balanced eating pattern without the CSP meal. I would get very stressed out and have a lot of anxiety every day trying to figure out what my evening meal would be if I didn’t have the meal from the CSP. We need this food because life is too expensive when you’re on disability and don’t have other resources.” 

Your donation can make the difference in if a person has a healthy meal for the day! 

RESTORING DIGNITY AND SELF-WORTH

When people come to MHR, they have often faced years of isolation, substance abuse, poverty, and social marginalization, as well as multiple episodes of homelessness. MHR values the experience of each individual and partners with them to develop a plan to address their unique needs. While at MHR, they experience support for their physical and mental health issues to help them on their path to recovery.

The mission of Mental Health Resources is to foster hope, health and recovery for people affected by mental illness and substance use disorder.