The Warm Welcome Kitchen’s season has been extended by at least another month.
The kitchen’s board of directors met April 20 and decided that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they should continue with their suppers until the end of May. Their season was slated to end April 30.
The kitchen has been serving meals that people can take home and prepare every Tuesday and Thursday since March 17. The pickup area is the Estevan Salvation Army’s Food Bank.
“With everything that’s going on with the COVID-19 pandemic, it just seems like more and more people are being let go from work, more and more people have been out of work for a long time,” said board chairperson Wendy Godfrey. “Nobody knows when that’s coming to an end, and we just thought the need was there.”
Thanks to their connections with the food bank, Warm Welcome knows the need is still out there.
“People need the food more than ever. They need meals and this was one way we could give back to the community and keep helping out. If the need is there, we thought we should fill that need the best we could,” said Godfrey.
Approximately 20-25 people have made use of the Warm Welcome Kitchen each time since mid-March. They have been as low as 17 or 18, and as high as 30.
“People are relying on that meal, and that, we think, is really helping a budget,” said Godfrey.
The committee will decide at their May meeting whether to extend the program into June.
“This will depend on what happens with the pandemic. If things are headed back to normal we will end at the end of May but if we see a need we will consider continuing for June.”
Godfrey noted that thanks to the support they received when they encountered financial issues in December, they are able to continue on for as long as necessary. They aren’t spending as much money as they were earlier in the season, when they were serving a full meal to around 50-60 people each night.
“The community came together and the donations were fantastic, and that’s enabling us to keep this going for as long as we need to,” said Godfrey.
