‘Vibrancy’ restored as Helping Hands reopens dining room
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/03/2022 (1371 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Helping Hands Centre of Brandon served hot meals to 115 people Monday morning, the first time in more than two years.
Yesterday marked the return of in-person dining at the downtown soup kitchen, something impossible at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Co-ordinator Amanda Bray said there was a lineup waiting to get in at 11:30 a.m. when lunch was served. It went “awesome.”
“We weren’t sure, since the new restrictions have lifted, how many folks were actually going to want to go in in-person and we did have quite a few of them come, so that was fantastic,” she said.
“The place was just buzzing with livelihood … from kids to seniors to people from all walks of life, it was so nice to have that vibrancy back.”
The first in-person meal entailed honey ham, potatoes, vegetables, salad and yogurt, she said.
“It was nice to really feel that sense of community and have our dining room full,” Bray said.
Beginning in March 2020, Helping Hands started serving take-out meals and distributed upwards of 200 each day, she said.
While the centre doesn’t have the capacity to serve both take-out meals and sit-down meals, Bray said volunteers will give-out extra loaves of bread, jars of peanut butter or cartons of milk when possible to people in need.
Helping Hands is also looking for more volunteers to help regularly serve food. There were plenty of volunteers at the re-opening, but Bray said she is looking for people who can help out on a regular basis.
There is also now a corner of the dining room devoted to donations, where people can pick up clothing or other household items if they need them.
“I’m just overwhelmed with the success and the joy and how happy people really were …. It was just a really great sense of pride all around, community and just a lot of laughter and joy.”
» dmay@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @DrewMay_