Serving more than a meal on King Day

Haircuts, legal advice make people 'feel important'

Volunteers at Turner Field prepare to serve homeless guests.

By Christy Oglesby
CNN

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The name just doesn't say it all. "Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless" evokes images of paper plates, long lines and down-on-their-luck desperates.

But Monday morning, as hundreds of adults and children formed a line outside Turner Field stadium for free food, they were outnumbered by volunteers busying themselves to provide more than a meal.

For the Hosea organization, Monday was a day to mark the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birth and serve some of Atlanta's homeless. Volunteers provided not only food, but also uplifting songs, clothing, worship services, bathing facilities, legal advice, health screenings, manicurists and barbers.

"It's really the legacy of Hosea Williams more than Dr. King," said Elizabeth Omilami, who organized the mass meal. "This day has particular significance as we remember the value of [Williams'] life and his commitment to serve the less-fortunate in the black community. We have to heal ourselves."

'Bloody Sunday,' 1965

A prominent civil rights leader, Williams organized the 1965 "Bloody Sunday" march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. He died in November 2000.

Julian Davis has volunteered for eight years with this agency that Williams founded, and he oversees the kitchen operations that organizers estimated would feed about 20,000 before the close of the eight-hour event.

Volunteering holds particular significance in this tradition of service, Davis said.

"Dr. King wanted everyone to be treated equally," he said. "Unfortunately, we are not all treated that way and we still have homeless because of our society and economy and the haves and have-nots. But today we serve them and help them."

'They made me feel important'

Early Monday, college students were on hand to lift boxes and work in the kids' corner where storytellers, face painters, educators and toys waited. Other volunteers were there to serve ham, turkey, coconut cake, vegetables and assorted breads. On the stadium's lower level, women queued up for showers.

Dwayne Graham, a truck driver attending barber school, was there, shears at the ready. He'd cut hair for the organization before -- 50 haircuts in one day, a sprint that he said left him exhausted and exhilarated -- and he'd returned "to give back to the community."

Connie Davenport and Roberta Jameson were eager to let Graham get to work on their locks. Their needs, said Davenport, went beyond a free meal. After all, they live in a car.

"The food was good, but I got my hair done," Davenport said. "They did my nails and everyone was real nice. They made me feel important."