The new In My Father’s Kitchen van has space to provide medical care. Photo by Darryl Geddes

A Syracuse-based outreach program for the homeless, called In My Father’s Kitchen, has a new Sprinter cargo van to help supply food, clothing and emergency supplies to people living in abandoned buildings, in hidden encampments and under bridges and overpasses. 

The van was specially equipped with a medical exam table, lighting, medical supply storage and other amenities to aid in a collaborative partnership with Upstate’s HouseCalls for the Homeless program. This street medicine initiative provides medical, psychiatric and addiction care for men and women experiencing homelessness.

“We’ll be able to deliver health care with a greater level of dignity,” said David Lehmann, MD, PharmD, who pioneered the program. (To hear Lehmann describe his work in street medicine, click here.)

In My Father’s Kitchen, which began in 2011, receives some funding from the city of Syracuse but relies mostly on private donations, local churches and corporate donations. 

This article appears in the 2024 Upstate Health magazine, Issue 1.