AT THE CAPITOL CITY INN, LUNCH NOW A LUXURY

DISTRICT'S SLICING OF FUNDS FOR NE SHELTER HAS HOMELESS SCRAMBLING FOR MIDDAY MEALS

At the Capitol City Inn yesterday, lunch was two pots of turkey soup donated by a Maryland homemaker.

The D.C. Department of Human Services stopped serving lunch at the city's shelter for homeless families on Thursday to save money in the city budget. Since that time, mothers there say, providing lunches for their children has become a day-to-day struggle.

"It's total hell," said Marlene Taylor. "I have an 18-month-old who is at home. The other three eat lunch at school, thank goodness. I was trying to go to school to finish a word processing class, but now I have to worry about getting food for my child.

"A lot of us didn't come here to stay forever. We're working toward leaving," she said. "Just because we're here doesn't mean we don't matter, that we have to suffer more. And to think, they're always talking to us about stress control."

Women at the Northeast shelter say they must now scrape up money to take their children to nearby fast-food restaurants, rely on relatives to share food or go to soup kitchens for lunch. To save money, Mayor Marion Barry has vowed to close the shelter, home to 186 families, including 530 children, by the end of April.

Dismantling of the lunch program has angered activists for the homeless and yesterday led attorneys representing homeless people to ask a judge for a temporary restraining order that would restart the program, if only for a while. The judge is expected to rule today.

Susie Sinclair-Smith of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, who spent most of yesterday in D.C. Superior Court, said the suit contends that the city can't stop providing a service it has offered for 10 years -- without offering people a chance to be heard.

"Two named plaintiffs are pregnant and have four children, one with three at home and the other with four at home," she said. "They don't have enough money to buy food. They received notices in the middle of month, when they had no chance to include the cost of this into their monthly budget. Breakfast is at 6:30 a.m. for them and dinner is at 6:30 p.m."

Meanwhile, yesterday a steady stream of women, carrying bowls, cups and other containers, entered the small, cold laundry room where Jacqueline Bobb, also a mother and a resident, dished out the turkey soup from pots atop an old clothes dryer.

"Free turkey soup!" a boy yelled from the door, as another woman ran to spread the word by telephone.

"This is really unsanitary," said Patricia Melton, who has three children who are at home during the day and two who are in school. "They say we can afford {buying lunch} . But how can you save money to move?"

"I sent my baby to school today so he could eat," said Andrea Carter, as she stood in the laundry room eating a bowl of soup. "He's 4 years old. The older children have to take him, and it's a 30-minute walk. But I didn't have a choice. If it wasn't for people bringing this {soup} , I wouldn't be eating today."

"They sent us a letter one day saying lunches would be stopped . . . and that they were sorry for any inconvenience," said Freda Marshall, who had brought her three children to the laundry room to eat. "The next day, the food stopped.

"You can't afford McDonald's every day," Marshall said. "The other day my husband and I and my kids went to McDonald's and it cost us $20. My husband is at work during the day, but it's the boys we worry about because they are here. It's impossible to save money to move if you spend all of it eating out."

Residents at the shelter are not allowed to cook food in their rooms, and they complained that food stamps were stopped when they moved into the shelter, making them more dependent on the city to provide food.

Free breakfasts and dinners are still supplied at the shelter. M. Patricia Jones, a Department of Human Services spokeswoman, said the department is "working with several private groups that want to provide food" at the shelter. She refused to give the names of the groups. Jones said children under 2 years of age are given formula each day.

"If people are hungry, you do what you can," said Sarah Wheeler, the Cheverly homemaker who donated the soup yesterday. "My family is on a tight budget, so I made what we had in the house."

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.