MLAs hear of soup kitchen’s need for new ovens

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This article was published 10/02/2024 (586 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While touring the pavilions at the multicultural festival Friday afternoon, Brandon East MLA Glen Simard made a stop at Helping Hands Centre and learned about the soup kitchen’s need for new ovens.

Simard was joined by MLAs Logan Oxenham (Kirkfield Park), Jelyn Dela Cruz (Radisson) and Tyler Blashko (Lagmodière) for a tour of Helping Hands, which serves anyone in need of a hot meal five days a week.

“(We’re) meeting with a number of different cultural groups, social services groups to get a better understanding of what Brandon is with the context we’re operating under, so that we have a more empathetic government,” Simard told the Sun.

Executive director Amanda Bray shared information with the politicians about the work the soup kitchen does and emphasized the need for more resources at a time when demand for the organization’s services has increased.

“We’re still getting a lot of immigrants, young families, as well as seniors (which) I find is the biggest group that we’ve started seeing more and more numbers of,” Bray said. “Because their dollars are just not stretching as far.”

Bray said that in 2023, Helping Hands served more than 41,000 meals — 3,000 more meals than in 2022. In January, they served more than 3,352 meals, well over the 2,703 meals served in January 2023.

The organization has also started making meals on Fridays and taking them to Blue Door and 7th Street Access Centre to serve on the weekends when the soup kitchen is closed.

While the need for the soup kitchen has increased in the community, Bray said the organization has still been able to maintain a $0 food bill because of donations from grocery stores and local Hutterite colonies.

And Bray said patrons get much more than a bowl of soup — every day the kitchen’s chef, staff members and volunteers create four to five cold dishes, like salads, and four hot dishes, including proteins and starches.

“It’s actually really close to a buffet you’ll see anywhere, which for us is really huge because we wanted to put the dignity into it,” she said. “It’s not just a second-thought meal. We put a lot of care and love into it with the help of our volunteers.”

But now, she said, organizers are worried they might not be able to continue serving meals without replacing their failing ovens.

“We have been struggling with our ovens,” Bray said. “They’re well used, and used and abused, and we can’t fix them anymore.”

Bray said that because the organization operates out of an old building, the gas hookups and hood vents have been grandfathered in, and installing new ovens would require large-scale work.

The cost estimate for the new ovens and the work to install them, Bray said, is $120,000, and that number includes a $25,000 donation from the companies that would do the work.

“It’s a huge amount of money that we don’t have (and) we don’t have funding for,” Bray said, adding that the organization has never received provincial or federal support.

Simard told the Sun that he asked the centre to contact him with more details about the ovens.

“I know that they’re doing fantastic work, and I want to continue the conversation about looking into ways to assist them,” Simard said.

Bray said the organization is planning on hosting fundraiser events for the new ovens, including a paint night. Details will be announced on the Helping Hands social media pages in the coming weeks.

“We’re working on doing a lot of fundraising so that we can get these vital repairs that are essential,” Bray said. “How do you feed people with no stoves?”

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