Good Samaritan Inn has served more than 28,000 meals since July

DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) – In December 2025, the Good Samaritan Inn told the community it needed help, and by March, the nonprofit had received enough donations to keep its doors open.

The organization reached its $410,000 fundraising goal, and Executive Director Tanya Melendez says the money is helping the organization get organized.

“We are definitely in a much better spot this year than we were last year,” Melendez said. “We are still in the rebuilding phase within our organization of building better internal processes, procedures, controls and reporting.”

Melendez explained that the non-profit hasn’t changed a lot of its organizational systems and it is serving significantly more people now than when it started. She is working to update the organization’s systems to increase efficiency and track data such as inventory, demand and donations.

“These are internal controls that we can implement so that we can do a better job of communicating our impact that we are having to our community,” Melendez said.

Part of the rebuilding includes connecting with the community and ensuring they know exactly what is happening within the non-profit. The team hopes it encourages more engagement and donations.

“The community didn’t know where we were at. They didn’t know that we were struggling,” Melendez said. “So being able to show that and to show our impact and what we are able to do, is really going to be beneficial for the organization long term.”

She said the $410,000 request was intended to cover a long period of time so the organization could work on rebuilding.

Melendez said the money will last until June 30, 2027. She called that date a “hard deadline” for finishing the rebuilding phase.

The Good Samaritan Inn has provided more than 28,000 meals since July. Melendez said having a place that is open every day gives people hope and support.

“Having a place that they can come and know that we will be open and that they will be served, really gives people a sense of just hope and support,” Melendez said.