What we do

The Loaves & Fishes Warming Center provides overnight center. A peaceable, respectful, and safe place for individuals experiencing homelessness. Open October 1-April 30, 9:00pm-7:00am, seven days a week. The center currently offers the following to all of our guests:

A warm, secure place to sleep
Evening coffee and snacks
Breakfast and bagged lunches
Hygiene supplies and clothing
Access to laundry facilities
Referrals to essential community resources

In addition, we have partnered with the Herkimer Reformed Church to host free community dinners with shower facility access every Saturday at 102 Church St. Herkimer. Thanks to our generous volunteers and donors, these dinners provide nourishment, along with fostering connections within the community and assessing the current needs of our served population.

Our Mission

We are committed to helping others and meeting people where they are at. We are a place of people who do not have judgmental minds or hearts. Everyone is welcome. The Warming Center is a friendly, secure, and respectable place for guests, staff, and community to work together. Our goal is to provide shelter, food, and referrals of other available resources that will aid in nourishing physical and emotional needs while encouraging and inspiring spiritual need for hope, acceptance, and respect of others.

Our Impact So Far

After years of planning and fundraising, the Loaves & Fishes Warming Center was able to open it’s doors in partnership with Herkimer Salvation Army. The goal of this “soft opening” was to see how the idea of the Warming Center operated in practice. That first season (roughly 5 weeks), we served 35 overnight guests. It was also clear that this service was desperately needed in Herkimer and the surrounding areas.
The first full season for the Warming Center! During this period, we served 144 different individuals, most of whom utilized our services consistently.
6 of our guests from this season transitioned into permanent housing.
5 individuals got connected to rehabilitation programs
Our third season at the Herkimer Salvation Army. We served 96 individuals during the season.
11 entered inpatient rehabilitation programs and 6 secured permanent housing.
During this season, we also started partnering with Herkimer Reformed Church to offer the weekly dinners on Saturdays. During these dinners, shower facilities are also made available for free for those who need access. These dinners ran for 32 weekends and served over 1,600 meals.
The Clothing Closet began. Through the generosity of our community, the overflow of clothing and household items made it possible for us to open a Free Clothing Closet to those in need.
This ultimately ended up being our last season at the Salvation Army as the need for this service outgrew the space available to us. During the summer of 2025, the Board of Directors worked diligently to secure a space that would afford the Warming Center the ability to continue with its current programming, while making plans for expansion.
Homelessness is not going away, in fact, it is increasing in the Herkimer area rapidly year after year. This is largely due to a housing shortage in the area, along with extensive waiting lists for services as it related to mental and physical health needs. Our goal is to create a space that would expand our services to include the following:
- Free, weekly community dinners to fill the gap in need
- A clothing closet with clean items and additional hygiene supplies
- Shower facilities
- A daytime drop-in center
- A soup kitchen
- A place to access case management, mental health support, and public assistance services
- Eventually, a 24/7 shelter in Herkimer County