The COVID-19 coronavirus forced the Warm Welcome Kitchen to end its season early, but the kitchen’s organizers have found a new initiative to support.
The kitchen’s committee held its monthly meeting on Monday night, and decided at that time to wrap up the season.
For most of this year, about 50-55 people have gathered for suppers through the kitchen twice a week, with Tuesday suppers at St. Giles Anglican Church and Thursday suppers at Trinity Lutheran Church. But the last couple of weeks have seen a decline in attendance to around 35 each night.
Wendy Godfrey, who chairs the Warm Welcome committee, said some of them might not want to gather because of concerns about the virus. Recent nice weather could also be a factor.
“The churches that we meet in have got directives from their leaders, saying that they shouldn’t have group gatherings anymore,” said Godfrey.
Those churches are concerned that it’s not safe to gather in large groups at this time.
“Whether the churches said that we could do it or not, we really thought for the safety of everyone concerned, we shouldn’t be meeting as a large group, because we don’t want anyone’s health to be compromised,” said Godfrey.
It was a very difficult decision to bring an early end to the season. Warm Welcome initially planned to close for the season at the end of April.
Godfrey noted the committee was concerned because they initially didn’t have an alternative to closing early.
“When it was first brought up at the meeting, we didn’t have a solution, and it was tough to say we’re used to feeding 50 people twice a week, and now we’re not going to feed anybody. It’s a concern, because people need to eat, whether there’s a health crisis or not.”
Warm Welcome has thrown their support behind a new initiative with the Estevan Salvation Army. Ronza Reynard, who is the Salvation Army’s director of ministry, is a part of Warm Welcome’s board, and she suggested handing out a single-serving meal, to be prepared at home, to people twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday nights. The single serving meals could be pasta and sauce, for example.
The meals will be available at the entrance to the Salvation Army’s food bank from 3-5 p.m.
“We knew we had to do something to feed people,” said Godfrey.
The kitchen wanted to do more than just tell the public that there’s food at the food bank, so they came up with the idea of the meal that people can take home, prepare and eat.
Godfrey described it as a partnership between Warm Welcome and the Salvation Army.
Christa Jorgenson, who is the manager of the Warm Welcome Kitchen and also the kitchen’s cook, is going to be working with the Salvation Army on the project to prepare the meals and make sure everything flows well.
The money that Warm Welcome would generally spend on meals is being donated to the Salvation Army, so that if they need to make purchases, they can.
The Salvation Army will have enough food for anyone looking for meals. If a family of four needs a supper, then they would receive four single-serving meals.
“We’re going by the numbers that come to our suppers, so we’re gearing it to 50-60 per night, but if more come, I think they’ll just look around and find something. They’ll find something for them, it might not be the same as the first 50, but they’re going to look after whoever comes for food.”
This partnership will continue for two weeks. If it’s a success, then it will continue until the end of April. If it doesn’t, then they will consider other options.
