‘We're going to make it work': Moncton soup kitchens prepare for additional guests
Thursday was another busy day at the Ray of Hope Soup Kitchen in Moncton and it's likely to get even busier in the coming days and weeks.
Kitchen manager Barb Mackenzie said they serve between 80 to 100 meals a day, every Monday to Friday.
But she expects those numbers to jump drastically.
On Tuesday, Harvest House Atlantic executive director Leon Baker told CTV News they would be phasing out their meal programs and other services for people not staying at the shelter.
Baker said provincial funding hasn't been cut, but they just can't afford the additional $38,000 a month for the services.
Debbie Bieman and Barb Mackenzie
Debbie Bieman and Barb Mackenzie at the Ray of Hope Soup Kitchen in Moncton, N.B. (CTV Atlantic / Derek Haggett)
Mackenzie believes that will put a strain on her operation.
'We are probably going to see a fair increase. I would say 20 to 30 people a day, I would imagine,' said Mackenzie.
Debbie Bieman, the other full-time employee at Ray of Hope, said things are already hard enough.
'We're going to make it work, but yeah, there's going to be a strain definitely,' said Bieman. 'There's a strain now. It's hard. We're feeding twice the amount of people that we did last year at this time. Twice. We're not getting any more food. We're just making it stretch farther.'
Barb Mackenzie
Barb Mackenzie looks at her weekly schedule in the pantry of the Ray of Hope Soup Kitchen in Moncton, N.B. (CTV Atlantic / Derek Haggett)
Around 100 meals are served a day a few blocks away at Karing Kitchen.
'We can't imagine it's not going to have an impact,' said executive director Bruce Lawson.
Harvest House stopped serving breakfast this week and the breakfast program at St. George's Anglican Church is scheduled to stop at the end of the month.
'We're seeing an increase in our number even this week,' said Lawson. 'We're seeing new faces and we're seeing faces we haven't seen in a while showing up at our doors.'
Bruce Lawson
Bruce Lawson, the executive director of the Karing Kitchen in Moncton, N.B., is pictured. (CTV Atlantic / Derek Haggett)
The Humanity Project serves between 250 and 300 meals a day seven days a week, but they actually ran short on Wednesday night by around 15 people.
Staff scrambled to make sure no one went hungry, but Humanity Project founder Charlie Burrell said the end to programs provided elsewhere is going to have a huge impact on them.
'At supper time we're expecting to have quite a few more people showing up because they no longer have a meal one block over from us,' said Burrell.
Like the staff at Ray of Hope, Burrell is expecting the extra mouths to feed will be a huge strain.
'This whole last year has been a huge strain. As the numbers keep increasing and going up, you need more volunteers to help and it's hard to fill those voids when the numbers just keep getting higher and higher day after day,' said Burrell.
Charlie Burrell
Humanity Project founder Charlie Burrell is pictured. (CTV Atlantic / Derek Haggett)
Working Poor
Lawson said only five to ten per cent of the people they serve are homeless.
The hope is to receive more funding from the provincial government and donations from the general public as they do their due diligence in preparing for the extra guests.
'We've upped our seating capacity downstairs here. We've talked to our volunteers about the additional workload we're about to see. So yeah, we've covered all of our bases and we're ready willing and able to serve the additional people,' said Lawson.
Everyone is welcome to come for a meal at Ray of Hope, not just the city's homeless.
'We've got senior citizens that have enough money to pay their rent, but they're hungry, they come in, we feed them,' said Bieman. 'We have moms and kids that come in. Little children, sweet little children.'
Up to 30 per cent of the people served daily at the Humanity project are experiencing homeless.
'The rest are seniors on fixed incomes. Families with children,' said Burrell. 'Or you'll see people pull up in their work truck or in their work uniforms, get out and grab a meal because they can't afford rent. There's a lot of people struggling.'
For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
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