On September 29, 2023 at Lincoln South Rotary Club, we heard from Susanne Blue, the first executive director of Matt Talbot Kitchen & Outreach. We were also introduced to Lori Wellman, Director of Development..
Suzanne told us about the mission and history of Matt Talbot. It was started in 1992 by Mary Costello and Ruth McKinstry. They noticed that was an unmet need in Lincoln and they started providing meals on Saturday nights.
Matt Talbot has always been led by women and the staff is primarily female. Suzanne believes that the nurturing support that women provide ensures the best care for their clients.
They provide meals (lunch and dinner) 365 days a year. They work on Christmas, Thanksgiving - all of the holidays. Those meals are usually the only nutrition they get. Their clients are 70% working poor or near homeless while 30% are truly homeless.
Their facility also offers showers and laundry facilities for the clients. Another important service is an address for mail - they get thousands of pieces of mail annually. They have a cell phone charging station and provide socks and blankets.
They have housing programs to support people at various stages. Housing First provides rental assistance and supportive services to individuals and families who are experiencing chronic homelessness. From their website - The Housing First model is nationally known as a best practice for housing the chronically homeless.
Rapid Housing was developed during COVID. There was an increase in the number of people who needed assistance. It was primarily short-term rental assistance.
Transitional Housing is designed to help individuals move from homelessness and addiction to a stable living environment. They have 3 houses currently that can hold 15 clients each. Two of the houses are for male clients and the other is for female clients. There are 4 licensed counselors on staff to provide services to help with addition and other mental illness.
Matt Talbot also provides various educational services to empower people to move beyond their current situation. They provide a sense of hope. Suzanne believes that the little things - eye contact, asking people how they are doing and listening to them, smiling - makes a big difference. All of the staff are encouraged to sit down and visit with the clients. That was an important to the founders and is still important today - to be inclusive and invite strangers into the home.
The Director of Development, Lori Wellman, shared a little about their current expansion plan.
https://www.mtko.org/
BIO
Susanne Blue, MSW is the first executive director of Matt Talbot Kitchen & Outreach, a hunger relief and outreach program that serves the working poor and homeless in Lincoln, Nebraska and those passing through. She had this position for 25 years and recently retired.
Susanne, earned a master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Nebraska-Omaha in 2000. Susanne has over 35 years of volunteer and professional experience in case management, hospice care, crisis support, advocacy, program planning, evaluation and grant writing.
Susanne is Past- President of the Human Services Federation (Now Cause Collective) and Past Chair for the Lincoln Lancaster County Homeless Coalition. Susanne also served as the President of the Board for Bluestem Health, Lincoln’s federally funded community health center. She was in the Leadership Lincoln Executive Series XXVIII and the Nonprofit Executive Institute in 2019.
Susanne enjoys diverse music, ethnic food, gardening, reading, exercise, and time spent with family and friends. She is married to Jim Blue, President and CEO of CEDARS and they have two children.