On an unseasonably warm day after Halloween, people are congregating on the steps outside of what was once St. Vincent de Paul Elementary School and is now the home of the Germantown organization, Face To Face.
It's the first day of the month, the day the 40-year-old charity helps guests (the people they serve) apply for a Pennsylvania identification card. And though they may be guests, those gathering for an ID aren't going anywhere until they form an orderly line.
"Take the line down the steps," bellows Rodney Howard, the charity's de-escalation specialist who looks like a linebacker …
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On an unseasonably warm day after Halloween, people are congregating on the steps outside of what was once St. Vincent de Paul Elementary School and is now the home of the Germantown organization, Face To Face.
It's the first day of the month, the day the 40-year-old charity helps guests (the people they serve) apply for a Pennsylvania identification card. And though they may be guests, those gathering for an ID aren't going anywhere until they form an orderly line.
"Take the line down the steps," bellows Rodney Howard, the charity's de-escalation specialist who looks like a linebacker on loan from the Philadelphia Eagles. "We can't get anything started until we get a line."
Behind those ID cards lies an efficient $3.4 million operation that has grown into a vital community resource – and one of Northwest Philadelphia's most trusted charities. Supporters include Elfant Pontz Properties, Elfant Wissahickon Realtors, the Chestnut Hill Hotel, Bird in Hand Consignment Shop, and the Rotary Club of Chestnut Hill.
Face to Face offers an array of essential services: ID cards, birth certificates, social services, and legal and health centers. It also maintains an education equity program for children. For daily needs, Face to Face provides breakfast and lunch five days a week, Friday computer and art programs, Saturday haircuts, and a laundry facility open four days a week where guests can have a hot shower. It's what Executive Director Mary Kay Meeks-Hank calls a "one-stop shop" for Germantown's underserved community.
And while it does get a state Neighborhood Assistance Program grant, it's done all this with no dependence on city funding.
"We have a mission of reducing suffering and empowering lives," Meeks-Hank says of the charity. "That mission is undergirded by a value system that I would call the secret sauce of Face to Face: We endeavor to greet everyone who comes in our doors with tremendous hospitality."
If Disney World is the happiest place on earth, then Face to Face is easily among the friendliest. The old school oozes welcoming vibes. There are no Keep Out or Staff Only signs on any door or office, and everyone - staff, volunteers, even guests - greet each other and strangers with a smile and sunny hello.
"We have intentionally created an environment that belongs to our guest," Meeks-Hank says. "We are a high functioning charity, if we are that, because we're not doing this just willy nilly. We are doing what we're doing with a thoughtful eye. We're striving for outcomes, not just output but real outcomes. And we make shifts to make sure that happens."
The building at 123 East Price Street has undergone a few shifts of its own over time. Built as a community center in 1884 by St. Vincent de Paul parishioners, it served as an elementary school from the 1950s into the 1970s. When St. Vincent's parishioners (well-educated, social justice oriented, according to Meeks-Hank) heard that their marginalized and underserved neighbors had no place to go for a hot meal on weekends, the building transformed again. The first weekend hot meal at 123 E. Price was dished out on May 13, 1984.
"When we refer to that time we say, 'we set a table and reached across it,'" Meeks-Hank says. "It was so much more than serving a meal. It was a conversation. It was finding out who people are. It was curiosity about difference and about experiences of poverty."
From that first weekend meal, Face to Face has grown organically, adding services, programs, and more meals along the way. Meeks-Hank, the charity's first full-time employee, was brought onboard in 2007.
"My job was to grow the program and un-silo it," she says.
And that she has. Today the charity has 25 full-time employees including three lawyers. Two lawyers, along with a recently hired housing navigator, are singularly focused on helping the charity's intermittently unhoused guests find clean, safe housing.
The housing navigator accompanies guests to appointments to make sure their guest is comfortable and negotiates rent and leasing terms. The center also has two full-time behavioral health staff, a full-time licensed therapist, and doctors from Jefferson-Einstein and Chestnut Hill Hospitals, as well as a retired physician. A podiatrist visits once a month because "amputations are off the charts for our zip code," says Meeks-Hank.
The kitchen crew prepares two meals a day (breakfast and lunch), five days a week and is manned by a full-time staff and an army of mostly volunteers. Last year the kitchen served 3,000 guests. Starting in 2025, Face to Face will expand its meal service to seven days a week and add a 1,500-square-foot expansion for private office space, meeting rooms, and open meeting spaces.
Face to Face currently sponsors a preschool program with Mercy Neighborhood Ministries. Through its new Education Equity Program, the organization hopes to collect data showing that if marginalized families are given the same access to good health, steady, satisfying employment, and safe and decent housing, their children will thrive and won't fall behind in school.
To add to its coffers, the charity holds two annual fundraising events - a fall Turkey Trot and a spring gala. The goal for this year's Turkey Trot is $425,000. It also has a "really solid" grant portfolio managed by Craig Heim, whom Meeks-Hank says "is smart as hell." The charity also has a "very, very, strong individual donor base," and that "money comes in every day." But she declines to name drop.
"Except for a capital campaign, no one is giving us a million dollars a year," she says. "I can guarantee that."
Running a charity, even one as successful and financially secure as Face to Face, is hard work. There is a "ton of sadness" among its guests, Meeks-Hank says. Over time it can take an emotional toll on Meeks-Hank’s "fabulous" staff.
"It's hard work when people are suffering," she says. "It's not easy. We do a lot to support one another. I have a wonderful leadership team."
Eighteen years ago, Meeks-Hank's mandate was to un-silo and grow Face to Face. Now her job is to ensure its long-term sustainability.
"I totally believe that this model works," she says. "For vulnerable people, this is the answer. So, I'm really deliberately working towards a sustainable model for this."
"We are neighbors," she adds. "Our city, our state, our world can only get better if neighbors help neighbors. From 19144 right off Germantown Avenue to 19118 in Chestnut Hill, we're all connected."