By: Susan Zaitounh, SOS Volunteer

Crowds came out to spice up their Sunday for the Seventh Annual Depot Town Chili Challenge benefiting SOS, a community-based nonprofit dedicated to preventing and ending homelessness in Washtenaw County. 

A small donation of $5 at the ‘Chili Tent’ set up near E. Cross and River St. in Ypsilanti started off this year’s competition with interested tasters stopping by to pick up the supplies they would need to sample chili from the Depot Town’s contributing restaurants:  Aubree’s, Café Ollie, Corner Brewery, Harvest Kitchen, Sidetrack Bar & Grill and the Ypsilanti Food Co-op. 

The Depot Town Chili Challenge is on Sunday, February 17 from 3 pm – 5:30 pm. People can taste delicious chili from 6 different restaurants with a donation of $5 to SOS Community Services. Purchase tickets on the day of the event at the “Chili Tent” located on the corner of E. Cross St. & River or at Corner Brewery.

Every week a student group called Scarves With A Purpose (S.W.A.P.), on the campus of the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, meets to learn the skill of knitting. The students don’t knit items to keep tucked away in their dorm rooms for themselves, instead they give them to people who can really use them.

“We knit to help others by doing something that [we] enjoy,” says Bethany Nagle, co-president of S.W.A.P.” “Knitting is something that many people find to be a passion, and they often don’t know what to do with the stuff they knit.”

SOS Community Services would like to update you about recent changes to our services - and upcoming leadership transitions.

• After serving as the lead agency during the pilot year of the Housing Access program, SOS will continue to play a vital role in the community’s delivery of homeless prevention services. In this new role the agency will continue to provide support by helping people facing homelessness stay in their homes.

• There is also a change with Time for Tots, a child care program that SOS has operated since 1995. As part of the community’s collaborative plan to serve more children, the Time for Tots program closed on October 31 and the children were relocated to existing day care centers.