Meal Service to Stop at Pottsville Soup Kitchen Sometime This Summer

The future of the Pottsville Area Soup Kitchen, as it operates right now, is in serious jeopardy.

At some point this summer, meals will no longer be served out of the Mahantongo St. building that currently serves dinner for up to 100 people from Monday through Thursday.

Instead, Catholic Charities-Diocese of Allentown intends to utilize a new food truck, called Catholic Charities Community Café, to serve meals to needy people across all of Schuylkill County. And it appears it won’t be able to get meals to those in Pottsville as often as they eat at the Soup Kitchen, four days a week.

At some point this summer – Catholic Charities does not have an exact date – food preparation will no longer happen at the Pottsville Area Soup Kitchen building. Instead, this will move to Holy Family Parish Hall kitchen in Minersville. Meals will be prepped there and loaded onto the food truck and taken to one location per day in Schuylkill County.

“Once the food preparation transition to Minersville is complete (which will occur sometime this summer), meals will no longer be served at 504 Mahantongo Street,” Lina Tavarez, the executive director of communications for the Diocese of Allentown tells The Canary via email.

When this happens, meals will no longer be served to people at the Pottsville Area Soup Kitchen. Those who depend on those meals will learn of a distribution point for meals to be served from the new food truck.

“This change is being made to support the thousands of additional meals that will be prepared in support of the Catholic Charities growing mission to feed the hungry throughout all of Schuylkill County,” Tavarez says. “Service in Pottsville will be continued, with a distribution site still to be determined.”

Andrea Neagle, the managing director of Catholic Charities-Diocese of Allentown further explains how meals will be served via the new food truck instead.

“Eventually we will do services Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays throughout the county,” Neagle says.

Neagle adds that Catholic Charities is still “working out details on how we’ll serve patrons in Pottsville” and that it’s still looking for a site where meals will be delivered.

“We have a schedule for some service days. We are ramping up. We still need to staff up and get our volunteers ready to go,” Neagle says. “Our service schedule is dependent on where we are welcome.”

Catholic Charities says this change will allow it to serve more areas of Schuylkill County outside of Pottsville. It says that in the first three days its food truck has been in service, more than 400 meals have been served.

It’ll next be in McAdoo on Thursday, from noon until 1:30 p.m.

“We feel a strong motivation and desire to serve all of Schuylkill County,” Neagle says.

40 Years of Service at Pottsville Area Soup Kitchen

Regardless of serving more of Schuylkill County, this change will likely cause issues for the people served by the Pottsville Area Soup Kitchen. It serves between 70-100 meals four days a week.

The amount of meals served through the soup kitchen has grown noticeably in the last four years, volunteers say.

Earlier this year, it marked 40 years of service to Pottsville after it opened in March 1984. It operates entirely on donations and volunteers.

In addition to serving meals, Pottsville Area Soup Kitchen provides coats, clothing, blankets and more to the needy.

Volunteers at the soup kitchen tell The Canary that the building is more than just a place to eat. There’s a sense of community and camaraderie among those served by it.

In the summer, it’s a place to cool down for a bit. And in winter, it’s a place to get warm.

Aside from serving as a soup kitchen, the building at 504 Mahantongo St. also serves as an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting spot and is headquarters for the non-profit group Dustin’s Adventureland.

The organization’s president, Jeff Dunkel, tells The Canary that the potential changes coming to the soup kitchen building are a concern for the non-profit. It utilizes the building for storage and a space for board meetings in addition to prepping meals for its charity events.

Dustin’s Adventureland and the soup kitchen lease the building from St. Patrick’s church, just down the street in Pottsville.

“I’m concerned for the people who rely on those meals 4 days a week,” Dunkel says about the potential of the meal schedule changing in the near future. “The soup kitchen has been cornerstone for 40 years.”

He’s also worried about the fate of the soup kitchen from his organization’s perspective.

“I’m trying to find out where we stand,” he says. “It’s a major concern for us. We need to know about our meeting place. If we’re getting kicked to the curb, we need some sort of heads-up.”

Subscribe to Coal Region Canary

Get email updates from Coal Region Canary by becoming a subscriber today. Just enter your email address below to get started!

Support Coal Region Canary

Like our reporting and want to support truly local news in Schuylkill County? Your small donations help. For as little as $5, your contribution will allow us to cover more news that directly affects you. Consider donating today by hitting the big yellow button below ...