Soup kitchen reopens Wednesday

In this Jan. 5, 2018 photo, Paul Ransdell, a regular visitor to the Fulton Soup Kitchen, ladles out a bowl of mutton-vegetable soup.
In this Jan. 5, 2018 photo, Paul Ransdell, a regular visitor to the Fulton Soup Kitchen, ladles out a bowl of mutton-vegetable soup.

The Fulton Soup Kitchen will again be serving lunch and dinner Wednesday after a productive sit-down meeting Tuesday between board members for Fulton Housing Authority and the soup kitchen.

"We're here for the community," said Darrell Brauner, vice president of the Fulton Soup Kitchen who also works with his wife at the Holts Summit soup kitchen.

The soup kitchen will remain at the John C. Harris Community Center where it's been for about 10 years, but there will be some scheduling changes.

Starting immediately, lunch will be offered Monday through Friday, with extended lunch until 3 p.m. on Fridays.

Dinner will no longer be served Fridays, which will give the housing authority the opportunity to rent the community room and kitchen on those evenings, and thus make up some of the $60,000 funding shortfalls imposed by government officials.

Last week, soup kitchen operations were discontinued until members of both boards could sit down and talk face to face. On Tuesday, they decided to:

Get a mutual written agreement nailed down and signed as soon as possible. The previous agreement expired in March 2016.

Give up Friday evening meals and compromise with longer Friday lunch hours and perhaps a small carry out meal.

Provide a list of soup kitchen volunteers to housing authority officials including contact information.

Have a soup kitchen board member at every meal service for the foreseeable future to make sure procedures are being followed.

Schedule a kitchen-cleaning party.

Randy Stevens, bishop of the Mormon congregation in Fulton, suggested asking local restaurants for meal vouchers to help people on days when the soup kitchen is closed. He also volunteered to bring a crew to help with the kitchen cleaning.

Much of Tuesday's discussion was between Anne Johnson, executive director of the Fulton Housing Authority, and soup kitchen President Katherine Bader. They said they would work at having better communication.

"Katherine and I will see how it's going and stay on the same page," Johnson said. "This is at least a place to start from."

The soup kitchen operates in the facility free of charge and utilities also are furnished.

Brauner said the soup kitchen is an asset for the Fulton community.

"There's a lot of hungry people out there," he said. "I think it's a big plus for the community."