Salvation Army serving up hot meals in Clarenville soup kitchen

The Salvation Army inClarenvilleis gearing up to serve hot meals in a not-so-hot economy.

The group willopen a new soup kitchen located intheir existing food bank location by the end of January to help deal with the growing need for hot meals in the community.

Central Morning5:46New Soup Kitchen in Clarenville

The Salvation Army is starting up a new soup kitchen in town. Our Julia Cook speaks with the people involved.

Maj.AnthonyLeDrewand his wifeMaj.YvonneLeDrewhave been in the area for four years.

The LeDrews saideach year the numbers at the food bank seem to increase, and this wasa good way to offer people a hot meal not just the food they need to cookfor themselves.

We made it andwe got it all up and running, working and we're so glad that we could do it.- Major Anthony LeDrew

"We have many, many people coming into our food bank and we thought it would be nice to let them have a hot meal here before they even go out the door," said Anthony LeDrew.

"Although there's growth taking place inClarenvilleyou still have the working medium wage, you still have the single parents and there's always the peoplethat's living in crisis," said Yvonne LeDrew.

They agree that people in the area are quite excited about the soup kitchen and many have come on board to help with the effort to get it open as soon as possible.

• Salvation Army clients say thanks for turkey, more needed to end poverty
• Corner Brook soup kitchen fills growing community need

Anthony LeDrew saidthe kitchen can serve up to 110 people and hasbeen equippedwith uprightfridges and freezers, as well as electric and gasstoves.

He said the addition of gas stoveswill come in handy if there is ever a power outage.

"We would be equipped for any storms or anything that might come our way," he said.

"We could cook soup for seniors and drop it off to homes, if anything like that should happen we're ready to go."

The Salvation Armyreceiveda government grant for around $20,000to start up the kitchen, but ran into some problems during renovations which put them over budget by around $15,000.

We're also seeing wherepeople are lonely and they're just in need of fellowship.- Maj.Yvonne LeDrew

Even with the cost overruns, he said the project was worth it, adding they now have the proper equipment to not only run the soup kitchen, but to offer others services like the seniors dinners theyhost each month.

"We made it andwe got it all up and running, working and we're so glad that we could do it," he said.

Yvonne LeDrew saidthe kitchen will offer more than just a hot mealitwill also give people a place to come and talk.

"We're also seeing wherepeople are lonely and they're just in need of fellowship," she said.

"They can come and talk aboutthingsthat are happening in their lives and what they have in common and maybe get some help fom that besides being fed physically."