The Fulton Soup Kitchen is on the move.
It's moving from behind the John C. Harris Community Center, its home of at least a decade. The kitchen has temporarily located to Westminster College's Backer Dining Hall while its board searches for a new building.
"The Fulton Soup Kitchen board and the Fulton Housing Department board reached an agreement that it felt like the time to part ways," said Lisa Thornburg, the soup kitchen's director.
Fulton Soup Kitchen President Katherine Bader and board members are hoping to expand services the kitchen offers. They also want more space to accept, process and store food donations. Bader mentioned tentative plans to provide life and job skills training and other forms of ministry.
"I think in order to work with our homeless on life skills and provide those other services, going out on our own would be a good thing," she said. "The pitfall (at the community center) is that we didn't have full access to the building."
The split
The soup kitchen and Fulton Housing Authority came into conflict in January, when the housing authority temporarily suspended meals at the facility to work out concerns with the kitchen's board members. Among the issues raised were budgetary concerns and volunteer crews potentially failing to follow proper procedures.
Board members of both entities agreed to change meal hours so the housing authority could rent out the community center for Friday evening events, thus making up some of the $60,000 funding shortfalls imposed by government officials.
There was no official contract between the organizations and the soup kitchen paid no rent, officials said, but the kitchen had installed a commercial stove, freezers and most of its equipment.
Housing Authority Executive Director Anne Johnson said there were no hard feelings in this final split.
"There were several requests (soup kitchen board members) made that we were not able to meet and come to an agreement on, so they decided that this (departure) would allow them to expand," Johnson said. "We wish them the best."
With last Wednesday being the kitchen's final night at the community center, board members began scrambling to make a seamless transition to a temporary location. Bader reached out to Fresh Ideas, which provides dining services at Westminster.
"I'd volunteered at the free store and soup kitchen with her," Fresh Ideas Director Jade Bradford said. "I decided we had to help them. We can't let kids go hungry when we have all this food."
She and Bader appealed to Westminster, which approved the kitchen to bring in its guests for free.
"Until God opens a door, Westminster College has agreed to feed everyone who needs it," Thornburg said.
Ground rules
Beginning Thursday, soup kitchen guests are now able to come to Backer Dining Hall for supper Monday through Friday. As the dining hall also serves students, there are a few ground rules in place to help things go smoothly.
The kitchen currently serves 20-25 unaccompanied children per night. Beginning Thursday, those children may now meet at 6:30 p.m. at the flagpole at John C. Harris to walk over to Westminster as a group. Volunteers will accompany the children.
Adults and families may meet at 6:40 p.m. at the Berlin Wall sculpture at Westminster. Everyone will go in as a group, get food at the buffet and eat in a side room.
"This is definitely a temporary solution," Bradford said, clarifying a hard cut-off date hasn't been set.
Thornburg and board members are hard at work finding the soup kitchen's new home. She said there are several prospects, though she declined to share details until paperwork is finalized.