The line begins to form twenty minutes before the kitchen opens. A handful of people have been in the dining hall for an hour or two, waiting for meals to be handed out. There is talk and laughter in the queue, giving the impression everyone here is family. At one o’clock, the doors at the serving counter are opened.
The line up snakes its way past the washrooms and the entrance doors. Lunch will be served until two-fifteen.
The Inn of the Good Shepherd on John Street, has been serving meals at this location since 2002, in the former Devine Street United Church. In a day, there can be 70 to 100 people enjoying the food served up by the volunteers. Usually, a volunteer group in the kitchen is comprised of six to eight people. Throughout the year, thirty to fourty groups donate their time. Normally, two volunteers serve the lunches. Clients are given their meals on a plastic tray. If someone is physically unable to carry their tray to their table, a volunteer from the kitchen or another client will assist them.
Menus are discussed and planned ahead of time. Volunteer groups determine what products are available from the Inn’s pantry or if they need to bring in product with which to prepare their meals. Groups tend to repeat their meals. The kitchen is professionally equipped, including an automatic dishwashing machine. You can register as a volunteer on the Inn’s website.
The dining hall is a pleasant, clean, well-lit room with long tables, tables for four and a sprinkle of double-seaters. In its former life there were church pews and parishioners. There is a table set up close to the kitchen with a large urn of coffee, mugs, sugar, spoons and napkins. Along one wall are tables of packaged baked goods: buns, rolls, croissants, muffins, flatbreads, and so on. Tables at the opposite end of the room may have packages of spinach, kale, mixed greens, sometimes bags of milk, tubs of yogurt. These products are day-olds or have only a short life span left.
Conversations are hushed. There is laughter, the shuffling of feet, coughing and sneezing: a kind of music. Sometimes, if a client does not want his or her dessert or the rest of their meal, they will offer it to anyone in the hall. At some point during lunch, a shopping cart full of the more appealing baked goods – the sweets -- is brought out. A crowd forms, and clients can choose one item.
Soup kitchens date back to the late 18th century. They became popular and needed during the years of the Great Depression. Fare, back then, was simple: soups, stews, bread. Meals at the Inn can be anything from chili to hearty stews, beans, potatoes, chicken parmesan to rice dishes and pastas. There is a food bank just beyond a wall, and people in need can register to take advantage of the items offered: canned food, dried foods, frozen meats and fish, even personal hygiene products. This is definitely more than a soup kitchen.
Everyday this gathering occurs (plus weekend dinners from 4:30 to 5:30). Like a large, extended family sitting down for a meal together. This is more than a place for handouts. There is a social purpose. It is more than just a soup kitchen.