After operating out of St. Saviour’s Anglican Church for 40 years, the Penticton Soupateria is being forced to look for a new home.
The volunteer-driven soup kitchen on Orchard Avenue received an eviction notice last week, effective May 31.
It’s a decision the church says wasn’t easy, given a big part of its Christian faith is to feed the hungry.
“It’s heartbreaking. It’s very hard,” said Bishop Lynne McNaughton, speaking on behalf of the Diocese of Kootenay of the Anglican Church of Canada. “People are sad, very sad not to be able to continue it. We struggled with this for a long time.”
The volunteer-driven organization serves free meals to those in need, whether they’re housed or unhoused.
Its service has shifted over the years from indoor dining to now providing bagged lunches to go.
The church has been gifting the space to the soup kitchen but says social disorder has become too much for an older congregation to handle.
“It’s become a place where the unhoused population is hanging around there with a lot of garbage and drug paraphernalia,” McNaughton said. “Every morning there’s fresh garbage to clean up and dangerous things like needles.”
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McNaughton added that safety concerns have also been raised by some parishioners.
“People sometimes don’t come to church because it feels unsafe,” she said.
Lauraine Bailie, past president of the Penticton Community Soupateria Society and a 30-year long volunteer, said the board was shocked to receive the eviction.
“The first question is what do we do so we can continue looking after the people who depend on us,” Bailie said.
Bailie added that she believes the problems could have been mitigated.
“I don’t think it’s insurmountable,” Bailie said. “I think with communication and openness with one another we can resolve it.”
The soup kitchen serves about 100 people every day, 365 days a year.
“It’s an essential service,” said Aaron McRann, CEO of Community Foundation of the South Okanagan Similkameen. “I don’t think people realize how critical the Soupateria services are to our community.”
The foundation is one of the groups now trying to support the organization and do what it can to help save the vital service.
“We’re available for funding requests if necessary, if it comes down to that. We’re also looking at real estate opportunities. We know a fair amount about the local real estate market, so we’re helping them look at different locations,” McRann said.
“We’ve brought together a number of food service organizations to talk about how the whole network of food providers can help support their transition to a new service model.”
Soupateria is hoping to get the eviction extended until the end of September to give it more time to find a viable path forward.
“The people that we are caring for will be fine. They will be looked after. We are not going to abandon these people,” Bailie said.
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