Making a Difference: How For Those Without Homes is Tackling Homelessness

It’s not every day you come across folks who are genuinely passionate about changing their community. On the latest episode of the vodkast, Kelly sat down with Karl Gertz and Brian Shriver to talk about a cause that’s near and dear to them—feeding the homeless. If you’re interested in supporting a great cause and maybe having a little fun along the way, please check out their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/gertzkarl/

Feeding the Hungry: A 15-Year Mission

Karl Gertz has spent the last 15 years dedicated to feeding the homeless in South Minneapolis. Karl and his team hit the streets every week to deliver food, clothing, and other essentials to those who need them most. Karl believes in meeting people where they are, and says, “we go out under the bridges, to the tent cities—wherever people are—and meet them with the love of God.”

This summer has been especially busy, and Karl’s gone through most of his summer supplies already. He’s in need of donations for t-shirts, shorts, new socks, and new underwear. But there’s more to this than just handing out food and clothing. Karl’s work is deeply rooted in faith, with a focus on showing love and compassion to those who feel forgotten.

Get Involved: Upcoming Fundraiser and How You Can Help

Now, here’s where you can get involved. On September 15th, *For Those Without Homes* is hosting a fundraiser at Richard Walton Park in Oakdale, Minnesota. There will be live entertainment, Kelly’s band, the Dirty Birds, is headlining, food to be catered by Olive Garden,  face painting for the kids, a silent auction, and even a bake sale.

If you can’t make it out to the event, there are still plenty of ways to help. For example, donating an Aldi gift card can go a long way—Karl shops there regularly to stock up on the groceries needed to prepare meals each week. You can also support through the *For Those Without Homes* Facebook page, where Karl keeps everyone updated on the work he’s doing.

AI Generated Transcript

Kelly (00:00.789)
And we are live with the vodcast Brian that was good you had Brian pulled out a Cheetos bag and put it up quickly to deep fake people and then he moved it away. it’s Cheetos if you’re wanting Cheetos late later it’s because you subconsciously saw the Cheetos bag.

Brian (00:09.634)
Say it all.

Brian (00:15.864)
They don’t sponsor me anymore. So I wanted to make sure it wasn’t on screen. It’s a cheesy flavored poof snack. I won’t call it by name.

Kelly (00:18.338)
well.

Kelly (00:26.497)
You don’t eat those anymore. For health reasons, you don’t eat those anymore.

Brian (00:30.456)
That was a carrot in case the wife is watching that was a carrot that was eating

Kelly (00:35.009)
Yes, Carl, what kind of hat do you have on there? I know Brian wanted you to show the fans at home. look at that. The famous Minnesota Vikings.

Karl (00:44.058)
I’m sorry, I you enjoy cheese, so it’s probably not…

Kelly (00:48.227)
I don’t eat a lot of cheese, but I do watch the Packers and I hope the Vikings do well this year as well. lot of good friends and family that are Viking fans.

Brian (01:00.041)
It’ll never happen.

Karl (01:00.273)
and you’re not if you’re rooting for us in any way so okay

Kelly (01:02.306)
Well…

Kelly (01:07.053)
Who is the quarterback going to be for the Vikings this year? Sam Darnold.

Karl (01:10.611)
Probably Sam. Yeah, for a while.

Brian (01:13.822)
or Carl

Yeah, or else Carl Gertz. Alright.

Karl (01:18.846)
Probably not.

Kelly (01:22.721)
I guess I was going to follow that up, but I’m not going to. Yes. So, Brian, when you and I talked earlier, you were in a cornfield harvesting corn, sweet corn. That reminds me of the topic at hand today, which is there are plenty of people that don’t have good fresh food and sweet corn. And so Carl is

Brian (01:27.734)
Thank you.

Brian (01:36.885)
Sweet corn.

Kelly (01:51.991)
driving a fundraiser for homeless and hungry in St. Paul coming up, is that right?

Karl (01:59.143)
That is right. I’ve been feeding the homeless for over 15 years now.

Kelly (02:06.093)
So how does it work? Tell us about the program and tell us about how, you know, is it just St. Paul? Where in St. Paul? How can people get involved? How can people donate?

Karl (02:18.074)
Well, I live in St. Paul, primarily my ministry is focused in South Minneapolis. I do some things in St. Paul, but I’ve kind of done this route for many, many years. And a lot of people know that I’m coming every Wednesday or at least once a week, but sometimes twice a week. so there’s, yeah, we go out and we bring food to them every week. bring socks, we bring clothing during the winter. We bring

hats and gloves and people donate clothing, pants, shirts. Right now it’s really big. I’ve gone through all the stuff I have for summer. This summer has been busier than ever.

Kelly (03:02.731)
And so what kind of things can you use for donations?

Karl (03:07.088)
Well I would say right now I could definitely use t -shirts and shorts. I always buy new socks and new underwear. I nobody wants to… I don’t want to wear someone’s underwear who wore them before.

Kelly (03:20.961)
Well, only if you’re a twin. Even then it’s a little weird. Even then it’s a little weird.

Karl (03:22.765)
Yeah.

Brian (03:26.761)
We’ve got a special situation here actually, Kelly, that you’re not aware of. Lance and Kelly are twin brothers. Myself and my brother Bruce are twins. And Carl had a twin sister who passed 15 years ago, Carl, was it? A little over 20. So we’re all three on this call twins.

Karl (03:42.661)
little over 20.

Karl (03:48.111)
That’s right.

Kelly (03:49.217)
Magic Twin Power. That’s awesome.

Brian (03:50.878)
Boom.

Karl (03:55.129)
You didn’t get up and do the fist pump thing like Kelly and I did.

Brian (03:58.801)
I did, but maybe you didn’t see it. Pa -pow!

Karl (04:01.675)
that was, I just…

Kelly (04:05.271)
He’s got the biggest hands of the three of us too, so shouldn’t be hard to miss. So underwear, underwear, socks, brand new underwear, brand new socks, shorts, t -shirts, back to school time, do you do anything for the kids, like backpacks or school supplies, any of those, or is that not part of it?

Brian (04:07.485)
But what? So.

Karl (04:24.324)
You know, there’s a lot of really great groups out there that do moms and kids, know, sharing and carrying hands and different organizations similar to that. They do wonderful things. We directly go out to the people who on the streets, the people who don’t have anyone around them. know, we meet, everything I do is very much faith based and we try to meet people where they are and bring the love of God to them.

And so when we go out under the bridges, we go to the tent cities, we go to the places where most people would rather have people come to them and then, we’ll give you this, we’ll give you that. Well, we are going to get out there and just meet them exactly where they are and just show the love of God to everyone.

Kelly (05:16.931)
How can people help? Like is there a website or is there a place? Now we have an event coming up in September, September I believe 12th or 13th.

Brian (05:25.767)
It’s a song,

Kelly (05:28.539)
15th 15th. OK, so we have an event the 15th and that is going to be in Oakdale. Is that right?

Brian (05:35.748)
Yup.

Karl (05:35.938)
Yes. Yep. Walton Park. It’s ever 15 from two to six. Kelly and his brother, they are playing. They are the headliners, the Dirty Birds. So I’m looking really forward to seeing them, but we’ve got two other bands playing. We’ve got food coming in from the Olive Garden. We’ve got face painting and games for the kids and, and other things going on. There’s a silent auction. It’s really, it’s going to be a great, really fun event.

And it’s, we’re going to have a lot of fun, but I think you have a little bit more fun when you know that you’re actually helping others, that you are being able to provide for people when they are in a tough place and honestly showing the love of Christ to everyone you meet. So that’s my…

Kelly (06:25.731)
And in case people can’t remember that address, is it out there on a website someplace if people want to check, you know, can they Google something so they can remind themselves where they’re going and when it is?

Brian (06:38.372)
Yeah, I would recommend that they go to the For Those Without Homes Facebook page, Carl, right? You’ve got a link on his Facebook page. It’s For Those Without Homes. If you search that in Facebook, you’ll find the Facebook page. The event again is Sunday, September 15th from 2 to 6 p Walton, it’s called Richard Walton Park in Oakdale, Minnesota. Live music, as Carl mentioned, food.

some stuff for the kids, silent auction, and just a great event trying to help others. And Carl’s been putting his heart and his energy into this for a real long time. And so if you need it, people could come out and support. But you can also support through his Facebook page. You can make a donation. I think you do a lot of your shopping if you need. He brings food items on Wednesdays. They prepare food also. But he does a lot of his shopping at Aldi.

If someone wanted to donate an Aldi gift card, that would be fantastic. That’s another way that could help. He’ll continue to use those throughout the coming years to buy food and groceries to prepare these meals and bottles of water and other necessities. Just doing great work. Nice work, Carl.

Karl (07:48.927)
Thanks, Brian. know, Aldi is definitely something we have used. I am constantly looking for better deals all the time. So a lot of internet stuff, buying things in bulk. I do have a storage. Thank you, God. I used to keep everything in my house for a long time, but yeah, now I’m glad I don’t. yeah, so I’m always finding better ways to do it and that keeps evolving. I keep finding better ways because

That gives me the head knowledge to figure things out.

Kelly (08:22.253)
Good. Well, I know I’ll invite the folks from Logisolve. I know we like to participate as much as possible in helping the homeless community. And we’re a St. Paul based organization. So we work in St. Paul and Minneapolis, but our customers are all pretty much Minnesota kind of companies. So I’ll get the word out on LinkedIn and this will go to LinkedIn as well. And if I can help.

with the cooking, are we gonna have like brats? We should have some Wisconsin Johnsonville brats so that people have good food.

Brian (08:55.257)
Bring those in your pocket. Carl has all of them coming in, right Carl?

Kelly (08:57.869)
Hahaha!

Karl (09:02.161)
Yeah, we have the Olive Garden is catering in the food. So it’s going to be a great food spread. There’s going to be cupcakes and, other things as well. Nobody will leave hungry. So I promise you that there is a bake sale. So people are up for it’ll be near right near the silent auction. So people will be able to purchase things and then they’ll say, Hey, you know what? I need to have some donuts when I get home.

Brian (09:16.129)
think there’s even a bake sale, right, Carl? Yeah.

Kelly (09:29.821)
we’re gonna have we’re gonna get I bet Jennifer Wendlandt is gonna want to jump in on that and make make some she’s a great baker. So I’ll I’ll mention it to her. I’m sure she’ll be happy to make something for the for the event.

Good, so I’m always in awe when I talk to you guys. You’re so much better than I am. You’re doing great things for the community. I feel humbled to be with people that have such high passion levels for helping people, are willing to take their time, energy, money to do that. So thank you from all of us. Thank you on behalf of Logisolve and for the whole community for helping out that way.

And one more time, us the website people can go to for the address and whatever else it is, Brian.

Brian (10:18.775)
Sure, you bet. Go to For Those Without Homes. Just search it on Facebook and you’ll find Carl’s page. He puts regular postings up there of the work he’s doing. For Those Without Homes, just search that on Facebook. You’ll find it. You’ll see the link to the event. You can buy tickets to the event through there. You can make a donation through there. Eventually we’ll have our silent auction items so that you can preview them through there.

all the bidding will be through a BetterWorld app, or not app, but website, excuse me. It’s a website that we’re using for the silent auction. So there’s a little bit of a technology play here to Kelly, you’ll enjoy that. They have a great platform. If anyone’s ever looking for something, it seems to work out really great for what we’re doing. We do have tickets for the events for the meals. You can also make a donation.

Carl’s got some great t -shirts for those without homes, t -shirts that he’s offering as well. So go check it out. We’ll know you were there, Kelly, when we see that you’ve made a donation. We’ll know you found your way.

Kelly (11:25.431)
You’ll know I’m there because I’m gonna be playing the guy up in front playing the guitar.

Brian (11:29.182)
I’ll tell them to tech. We’ll know that you found the tech. Are you a Facebook user, Kelly?

Kelly (11:33.023)
right, right, right, right, the website. No, I’ve never been on Facebook. I’ve never had an account, and I’ve never been on it. No.

Brian (11:40.614)
I’ve seen you on Facebook. Maybe one of your family members or something can help you out.

Kelly (11:46.295)
My wife is on Facebook and so she can help me out that way.

Brian (11:50.129)
Fantas – well, God bless Jennifer.

Kelly (11:53.463)
Yes, I say that often. thank you. Carl, Brian, thank you so much for your time this morning. For everybody else out there, you are watching the Vodcast.

Brian (11:54.929)
Yeah.

Karl (11:58.712)
Yes.