Freezing To Death

As we head into the season of gratitude and giving, we often find ourselves reflecting on the reasons we’re thankful. We appreciate family and friends who invite us to gather in warm homes for holiday festivities. We’re grateful for dinner tables with filling food. At the end of the day, we count our blessings as we lay our heads down in comfortable beds, covered with heavy blankets to keep us warm as the Iowa temperatures drop.

In contrast, there is a population of Iowans heading into battle over the next four to five months—a battle against subzero temperatures with perhaps only a tent and blanket as their defense.

Every year, Iowans freeze to death from over-exposure to winter temperatures. This winter, people experiencing homelessness will sleep with food and water next to their bodies with the hope it won’t freeze during the night—many times, it will. And others will suffer severe burns or carbon monoxide poisoning when they are so desperate to keep from freezing, they build fires in or near tents or inhale fumes from smoldering coals.

With limitations to the length of stay in shelters, it’s just not possible to remain in a shelter all winter, much less year-round. Living in a tent can be a person’s only option.
“Sometimes, people go into a ‘give up’ mode,” says David, a past Joppa client. “You’re so cold. You just lie down and give up.”

But there is hope, and that’s what Joppa delivers to people experiencing homelessness.

Every Saturday during winter, regardless of weather extremes, the Joppa Winter Heat Team delivers life-saving heaters and weekly fuel to homeless campers. The heaters warm tents enough to safely and significantly reduce the risk of frostbite, hypothermia and death while also keeping food and water from freezing. “Joppa volunteers help people experiencing homelessness survive until permanent housing or temporary shelter options are available to them,” says Joe Stevens, Joppa CEO and Cofounder.

Manny, a former Joppa client who now owns a home and volunteers on one of the Joppa Winter Heat Teams, says the heater he received when he was experiencing homelessness saved his life.

“I was very thankful because I didn’t have to sleep in the cold,” he says. “You know, sometimes just having a heater is the number one thing that you look forward to.”

Now, as a husband and father, Manny remembers a time when simply having Joppa volunteers visit with food and heaters was what brought him the hope he needed to make it another day. “The reason for that was because when you’re homeless, when you’re poor and you have nothing, the only thing that kind of brings your spirits up will be a warm meal [and] the fact that someone brought you a heater.”