Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Hay River (Oct 01/01) - An unassuming Atco trailer on Hay River's Woodland Drive has been providing quiet comfort for hungry residents for over five years now.

Chief cook Laura Rose unloads a bounty of donated produce at the Hay River Soup Kitchen. - Terry Halifax/NNSL photo

The Soup Kitchen got its start in the mid-'90s providing school lunches for elementary school students who would otherwise go without.

Since then it has expanded to bringing hot meals three days a week to the town's needy.

Soup Kitchen President Laura Rose loves the work she does and has always held an interest in cooking.

"Once-upon-a-time, I wanted to open my own restaurant," Rose said. "Well, now I have -- it's just a little bit different than what I had in mind."

The job pays nothing but Rose says the "tips" are the best part.

"I get lots of smiles and lots of clients who like to come back -- they like my bannock."

Open for lunch Monday, Wednesday and Friday, the kitchen feeds 25-45 people per sitting, with about 70 people visiting the kitchen on a regular basis.

"It's a really hard to put a hard and fast number on them, because some will only come two and three times a year and others are here all the time," Rose said, adding that the easiest way to count the customers is from the empty soup pots -- one pot feeds 40 people.

"We can go through two or three of those big pots in a week," she said.

The average lunch consists of soup, sandwiches, bannock or muffins and recently every other Friday the kitchen puts on a full meal.

"We have this wonderful food sitting in the freezer and it's so much better to use a roast beef as a roast beef, rather than hack it up for soup," Rose said.

Fall brings a great bounty of garden produce from corrections, Paradise Gardens and other local growers.

"The good Lord seems to bless up with all this food coming in, but as much as it comes in, I keep passing it out," she says.

Through the rest of the year, the stock pot is kept full with help from the Elks and Lions Clubs, Catholic Women's League, the Thrift Store and the Hay River Bakery. Camps and others who reach the end of the season will bring their left-overs down to the kitchen and even people clearing out their freezers.

"If it's not to badly freezer burned it's quite usable," she said. "It doesn't really take too much away from the nutritional value."

About half the customer base still comes from children sent to school without lunch, but she says the wide open door policy and the social experience brings all types of people by for lunch.

"I don't turn anybody away; if a business man comes in for lunch, I don't mind, but I like working people to put a donation in the jar," she said. "The old adage that we're feeding nothing but the drunks is gone."

As word's gotten around about the soup kitchen, she says she's running out of room at the Atco trailer, but can't see any expansion in the near future.

"We'll have to be in here for the rest of the winter and we'll just have to continue coping as best we can," she said.

Colin's on income support and says it's sometimes a long wait between checks.

"I know it helps a lot of people," Colin said. "If it wasn't here, I suppose a lot of people would go without."

"It's good for everybody."

Colin's friend Doris says they come in now and then when they need to, but really appreciates the kitchen on holidays.

Kim has lived in Hay River since 1969 and remembers the population being 67 people.

Injured on the job, he's waiting for disability pension and he's grateful for the hot meal and the friendly conversation served up at the soup kitchen.

"If I don't stop in for lunch, I'll stop in for a coffee and say hi," Kim said.