Iowa State students received the opportunity to visit and plan a meal for a local Ames homeless shelter through a course offered by the department of human development and family sciences.

Vic Moss, director of the Emergency Residence Project for the last 10 years, said he believes the experience of bringing groups to the shelter helps break down stereotypical barriers.

“It’s not an ‘us and them’ issue, [it becomes] a ‘we’ issue,” Moss said.

“It’s first-hand contact with another side of our society some of them don’t have contact with.”

Under Moss’s supervision, students in HD FS 360 have the opportunity to prepare meals for residents, as well as share dinner and conversation with them.

The Emergency Residence Project, which relies mostly on fund raising for its budget, provides shelter for about 14 residents, including single people and families.

The students have dinner with the single residents, in order to give the families their privacy.

Moss said he benefits from the student project by getting help with cooking for his residents and by getting the opportunity to meet with the students.

He said he enjoys talking with the students and answering their questions about how to run the shelter.

Sue Crull, professor of HD FS 360, said the opportunity can be a “valuable experience.”

Crull said a visit to the shelter and the chance to converse with the people, can give a student a different view of homelessness than the one offered in a textbook.

By talking to the residents, students can learn that “homeless people are not some strange sort of souls out there,” Crull said, adding that the residents have families, aspirations and goals just like any other citizen.

Crull said the majority of students who have chosen to participate in this project thought it was “a worthwhile experience.”

Moss said his biggest hope for the shelter is for the public realizes that lack of affordable housing is a problem facing too many families today.

“It’s taken quite a toll on a lot of our families,” Moss said.

Moss said donations of products such as laundry powder or soap are always needed and appreciated.