ESTEVAN — The Warm Welcome Kitchen has been having a great 2023-24 season so far, with a lot of engagement both from volunteers and the community, but they will need some financial and/or food donations to make sure they last to their scheduled wrap-up date of April 30.
Warm Welcome Kitchen board president Wendy Godfrey said things have gone really well for them this year, and she hopes it will continue.
"We have a great cook, Donna [McGillicky], who is putting together some fabulous meals. She's also really taking the time to get to know the people who come. So, she knows what their needs are and she's helpful that way. And we've had some great volunteers, different service groups have come out and they actually brought the food, prepared the meal and served it for us," Godfrey shared.
"Every year Certified Energy comes out the meal closest to Ukrainian Christmas and they do our Ukrainian Christmas meal for us, which is awesome. They provide all the food and the workers for that."
She noted they had numerous service groups and businesses joining them as volunteers. If someone wants to be a part of Warm Welcome in a volunteer capacity, they can reach out to the kitchen program through Facebook and they will be put on the list to volunteer during one of the meals.
"We've had a lot of people just come out wanting to help, so it's been really, really good," Godfrey said.
While several people donated food and funds towards the kitchen at the beginning of the season, Godfrey said they'll need more support to make it through the end.
"We are a little bit low on funds, hoping for a few more donations that will take us to the end of the season. So far, that's always worked for us: people have always come through when needed. We need a little bit more money to make it to the end of the season, so hopefully we'll see some donations come in," Godfrey said.
"We're an unregistered non-profit so we can't get grants or government help at all. So, we look for those donations to come in … But the community always comes through when we need stuff, so, even though we're a little short on funds, I have no doubt that we'll get the help we need."
She noted if they don't have enough funds, they will just serve as long as they can.
The full-scale hot meals are served Tuesdays at St. Giles Anglican Church on 12th Avenue and Thursdays at Trinity Lutheran Church on Second Street from 5:30-6:30 p.m. and are free to anyone who comes. Not only do these meals help people a bit financially, but they are also a great way to socialize.
Godfrey said they serve about 50 meals each time. They are getting different people out, but there is also a core group who became friends through this initiative.
"We have a core group that never misses out, which is nice, because they're very connected to each other now. They become a really close group, good friends, which is really a nice benefit of the Warm Welcome Kitchen," Godfrey said. "We're not there just to help make ends meet, which of course, for a lot of people, having a couple of free meals during the week really stretches their food dollar, but there are people who need to meet people. Maybe they don't have any close friends or whatever.
"They are welcome to come and meet people and just enjoy a meal together and some good conversation. And we're seeing that quite a bit as well."
Warm Welcome Kitchen also hosted a grocery dash fundraiser last year, which Godfrey said was a success. A two-minute grocery dash, up to $1,000 at Sobeys, was the prize, and the winner managed to put $998 worth of groceries in her cart. The non-profit also raised funds for their needs, and they plan on hosting another one this year.
