Summer is just starting, and already The Gathering Place, North Bay’s soup kitchen is seeing signs of a busy few months ahead.
“When we combine breakfast, lunch and our evening meals, we’re probably doing about 300 plates a day. So, we’re probably doing about 1,500 plates a week now,” said executive director Dennis Chippa.
The organization is looking forward to the extra space it will get when it moves from its current location on Algonquin Avenue, to its new location on Cassells Street in September.
“We are really close to being done the construction period, probably in another month. I was there Thursday, and it looks pretty nice,” said Chippa.
“It still has to get painted, electrical stuff has to come in, lighting fixtures and things like that. We’re targeting mid-to-late September to have an official grand opening. We want to try it out first to see how everything works, iron out the bugs.”
At the same time as the organization has been working on the construction phase, it has been developing a game plan to physically move to the new building and planning for what will happen once it’s open.
“We bought the building. So between the purchase of the building and the construction, the cost is around $800,000, maybe even a little more. That’s what we raised in our capital campaign. The construction cost us a little bit more than we thought, but we’re pretty close to where we want to be.”
As for seating in the new location, the organization has been able to acquire almost all the furniture needed, at no cost.
“We’ve got seven brand new looking tables that are six seaters, so we’re figuring anywhere from 42 to 45 seats will be available. Right now in this location, we have 23 seats,” said Chippa.
“The actual cooking area will be almost the size of our current kitchen area, but we will have two separate areas which will double the capacity. The storage will increase the capacity for our food rescue programs, and it will also allow us to have more room in the serving area so people can stay a little bit longer. We might even do some programming.”
There may even be an opportunity to provide some health-related services.
“There has been contact with two different groups prepared to do some medical stuff, things like flu shot clinics. We wanted an office for that purpose so that has been built in downstairs as well, so we’re pretty excited about that.”
The Gathering Place provides evening meals on Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday nights. Breakfast and lunch is served Monday to Friday.
