Hours of Operation

Iron Gate provides food for the hungry every morning,

365 days a year
Weekday mornings
8:30 am to 10:30am
Weekends and Holidays
8:30 am to 10:00am

Latests Communications from Iron Gate

Last week at Iron Gate

August 09, 2010

The current TulsaPeople magazine had a photo about our Cooking for a Cause Gala. Reservations are filling, so if you have not yet made a reservation and intend to, please do so soon—by mail or online at http://www.facebook.com/l/ef0afxz06W3hQrsXaVwYrx2q3lA;www.irongatetulsa.org. Tickets are $75 person. We have had great response to our event page but in order to reserve your spot, you must secure it by paying for the reservation.

Longtime IG guest and cleaner, Lionel Spear—who we all called Mr. Spears--died Wednesday August 4, 2010. Military funeral services are pending. His church is handling the costs and we staff members will be making contributions to that church to help with expenses.

Summer Increase in Food Needs

July 30, 2010

Hopefully you saw the “Tulsa Word” front page story Saturday, July 24, reporting that 2,000 people showed up at Iron Gate Friday for 300 emergency food boxes from the Food Bank, such a crowd that we have had to temporarily discontinue this service. Saturday, we had about 1,000 people. [we have posted a link to the story on our facebook page in case you missed it]

Sara Waggoner, director of the Community Food bank, said she is not surprised at the crowd. “We’re seeing a 40 percent increase in the number of families coming in and asking for help,” she said. “Most of them are coming in for the first time.”

Iron Gate is in conversation with First Baptist up the street and we have a meeting next week with the Food Bank. Iron Gate is searching for a solution to the logistical problem and the high demand for food, but it’s tough to solve.

Hopefully you also saw the “Tulsa World” front page story today, July 27, about the worst states in the nation for child well being. Oklahoma is near the bottom—number 44. The article includes two photos of children eating at Iron Gate. The state now has 23 percent of our children living in poverty. “It is tragic beyond words that Oklahoma children are so vulnerable,” said Desiree Doherty, executive director of Tulsa’s Parent Child Center.[we have posted a link to the story on our facebook page in case you missed it]

You may not have seen the front page story in today’s “USA Today” about the national housing crisis (last year evictions were up 127 percent to 191,000) and job losses are the worst since statistics have been kept (8.5 million jobs vanished in 2009.)

What this means to Iron Gate is that we continue to have more demand for food help than ever. We don’t see an end in sight.

Example: Today, two young mothers—sisters—came in for emergency grocery bags (not the boxes from the Food Bank.) Both recently lost their jobs. Both have children and all moved in with their parents, who were already caring for young grand children. Now the family totals 15 living in one house and with no food. The sisters were frightened and embarrassed to ask for help and told us they have never been in this situation before. We cannot solve their housing or employment problems, but we could scratch together food from our pantry for them.

Saturday (July 10, 2010) Concert

July 07, 2010

The Quick and the Dead, a Christian praise band from Kansas City, will give a free concert for Iron Gate guests and others Saturday, July 10, at 9 a.m. on the Trinity parking lot.

The eight member band is on tour through Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri performing for homeless and working poor. “We perform at homeless shelters, soup kitchens, rescue missions and anywhere else the homeless gather for physical and mental sustenance,” said Laurie Schwab, the band’s leader, vocalist and keyboardist.

The group says it does not “preach, pound or humiliate” its audiences. “Our music and humor seek to bring some calm and peace and memories of better, earlier times to people who have to be constantly guard and on the edge of survival.”

Band members range in age from 41 to 70. They are Episcopalian, Roman Catholic, southern Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist and “undecided.” One is a brain tumor survivor, one a convicted felon, one formerly homeless.

The band accepts donations but are funded primarily out of their own pockets. They use their own cars and vans to transport their instruments and sound equipment.