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Steady flow for Hay River Soup Kitchen

Last year was busiest yet

Paul Bickford
Northern News Services

Hay River (Mar 31/03) - Laura Rose, president of the organization's board of directors, says business and public support has always been good since the Soup Kitchen opened in 1995.

It serves anywhere from a dozen to 45 people each of the three days it is open every week.

"You can go through a lot of food in a day," says Rose, who has been president for about five years.

A lot of the food is donated, either by businesses or individuals.

Some of it is left over from community dinners.

"I don't think we've ever lost any support," Rose says.

Frozen caribou and moose welcomed

The Soup Kitchen even accepts frozen caribou and moose meat when people clean out their freezers.

Just recently, a woman also donated some fresh lake trout.

Rose notes the daily food offering at the Soup Kitchen can include big pots of soup, four or five loaves of bread and six to eight litres of orange and apple juice. That's in addition to sandwich meat, cheese and crackers.

Along with food donations, the Soup Kitchen also gets financial assistance from the community, mainly from service clubs, she notes.

The Department of Transportation donated an old trailer in 1996 to house the Soup Kitchen, which is located at 65B Woodland Ave.

To help keep the food flowing, Rose has help from about a half-dozen volunteers.

The operation runs on $550-$600 per month, which pays for some food and extra costs, such as utilities.

Rose adds the number of people served has recently dropped about nine per cent from the same time last year.

"Where everybody's gone, I don't know."

She says the numbers had been steadily going up and 2002 was the busiest year ever at the Soup Kitchen.