The Community Soup Kitchen has made its home at 90 Thompson Street every Wednesday at 5:30 pm. It is a free dinner where you can sit with friends and have a two course meal, a cup of tea or coffee. The menu changes and contains dishes such as tuna mornay, roast pork and ragu penne.
Sam McNally of the Community Kitchen said it has been going well this year.
“We’re averaging between 70 and 80 meals a week going out. Predominantly, I’d say two-thirds of those are in a takeaway capacity, whereas a third probably is eating in,” she said.
“We have had some good donations, and our volunteer base is still really good. We’ve got a guy in Young who’s a mobile butcher who donates meat from farmers when he does some butchering work, but apart from that, we’re always still looking for donations.
“With the price increase of everything, it’s just making everything a little bit tougher.
“It is maintaining about the same numbers every week. I would say I’m probably getting more people as it goes along, but then also, if we’re called outside of the Wednesday, if people need meals, then we’ll take them some meals outside of that time. I’m receiving more calls for that. At the moment, it has probably increased.
“It is like family coming around the table. Everyone knows each other.
Everyone looks forward to seeing each other every week, as they have all built a relationship with each other, and it’s been like that for years, really, where they notice when each other’s absent and they look out for each other. It really is just like a family situation.
“A massive thanks to our volunteers. That includes the Long Track Pantry, they donate dessert once a month, the Presbyterian church do, the Wallendbeen Red Cross do, then there’s Leo’s mobile butcher in Young. A lot of the community comes together to make this happen.
“It is good to get the word out there. If people know that there are people doing it tough, let them know that we are still going.
“One thing is that we noticed since COVID that there was a decrease, like we used to have about 100 people sitting in. I want to encourage people to recognise that that period is predominantly over and that they are all welcome to come back and sit in.
“It is run every week, on Wednesday nights at 5:30 pm, a two-course meal for free in school terms at 90 Thompson Street in the hall.
“We have school holidays off.”
Jack Murray
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