On Thursday evening, the final patrons finished eating and volunteers at Pottsville Area Soup Kitchen cleaned up the dishes and did some general tidying up on what was likely the final day of meal service there.
After more than 40 years of serving the needs of the hungry in the Pottsville area, the doors to the soup kitchen probably closed for the last time Thursday.
By Monday, the soup kitchen on Mahantongo St. will be replaced by a food truck run by Catholic Charities that’ll be parked across the street from St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, just a block down the street from the soup kitchen.
The food truck is scheduled to be in Pottsville three days a week going forward. Pottsville Area Soup Kitchen served meals four days a week.
Patrons only learned of the news that the soup kitchen likely wouldn’t be open any longer when they showed up for the meal on Thursday. The news came as a shock to many of the patrons willing to speak to The Canary.
One patron named Jason, who has been visiting the soup kitchen for the last six months, said, “It’s a shame. It helped a lot of people who are down and out.”
Jason said he’ll manage day-to-day going forward on where he’ll get his next meals.
Another patron, Keith, said he was shocked and disappointed when he learned on Thursday that it was likely the last day for the soup kitchen. The sudden nature of the news means he and others will have to come up with plans quickly for getting fed going forward.
Keith told The Canary that he’s known since the beginning of the summer that the soup kitchen’s closure was always a possibility but the reality of Thursday being the last day, more than likely, still hit hard.
“Since June, we’re expecting to show up to a sign and a padlock on the door,” he said. “Every day it’s not, we’re all thankful.”
Keith added that he wished the people who made the decision to close the soup kitchen in lieu of the food truck would have come to visit the patrons who visit it regularly and tell them the news of their decision.
Catholic Charities did announce back in June that Pottsville Area Soup Kitchen would be closing some time this summer. It kept operating with that cloud over it the entire summer and through most of September.
But on Wednesday night, at 7:16 p.m., Catholic Charities sent out a press release to The Canary and presumably other local media outlets indicating that on Sept. 30, its food truck would be in Pottsville that day and the soup kitchen would be closed.
That decision ignored pleas from many in Schuylkill County for the last several months.
In a letter dated Thursday, Schuylkill County Commissioners once again asked Catholic Charities to reconsider their decision and beyond that, said the organization should sell the building to an organization that would continue to operate a soup kitchen from it.
The Commissioners sent a similar plea to Catholic Charities earlier this summer when the news first broke of the soup kitchen’s impending closure.
“We feel the new food truck operation will leave a void in the downtown Pottsville area. The local Pottsville community has come to depend on this location for their meals, to socialize, and to gather as a community,” the Commissioners’ new letter reads. “It also provides a place where the individuals can learn of services and additional support that may be available to them. As some of these folks may not have access to transportation or media information, it would be impossible to track down a food truck’s location.”
The likely final day at the soup kitchen was tough for the volunteers, too.
Mary Ann McGuinness, who has volunteered at the Mahantongo St. soup kitchen for decades, was beside herself knowing that Thursday was probably the last day of meal service there.
When we spoke with her back in June, she expressed frustration with the way the closure was handled. And those feelings haven’t subsided a bit since then.
“Terrible … terrible,” she said when asked how she was feeling just ahead of the final meal service.
“I’m going to miss them,” McGuinness said.
Another volunteer, Peggy, said, “I feel sorry for everybody. I don’t see why they couldn’t do both. I don’t get it.”
Jeff Dunkel, who runs Dustin’s Adventureland, a non-profit organization that rents space at the soup kitchen building and volunteers regularly there, spoke critically of the way the closure was handled.
He’s especially critical of how anyone associated with the soup kitchen was informed, or not informed, about the last day. Even as the doors closed after Thursday’s meal service, no one was really quite sure if it was in fact the final day.
“I think the whole thing was very poorly planned,” Dunkel said. “Now we have to break the news to them. (Catholic Charities) keeps talking about their transparency. It’s the furthest thing from it.”
After the day’s meal service concluded, everyone who visited the soup kitchen Thursday moved along without much ceremony. Patrons and volunteers, alike, parted ways, many not sure if or when they’d see each other again.
READ MORE:
- Meal Service to Stop at Pottsville Soup Kitchen Sometime This Summer
- Patrons Say Pottsville Soup Kitchen is Like Family
- Soup Kitchen Volunteers from Hydro Wonder What Patrons Will Do for Meals
- Schuylkill Commissioners Appeal to Allentown Diocese Over Potential Loss of Pottsville Soup Kitchen
- Today Appears to be Last Day for Pottsville Soup Kitchen
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