By Cecilia Nasmith
Organizers are still aghast that it could all come together within less than eight months but, after Saturday's grand opening, the Coventry Relief Kitchen in Colborne will be serving up a hot dinner Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3 to 7 p.m.
A sort of dry-run meal was held Wednesday night for supporters and volunteers to see how it will work. Volunteers dished up home-made scalloped potatoes, ham, mixed vegetables and baked beans, with a nice pineapple glaze drizzled over the ham if you liked. Buns and condiments are on a nearby table. For later, there is a coffee table with coffee and tea and a dessert table with cakes and cookies (along with a donation box, if you can help out).
They even welcomed a couple of special guests – Northumberland-Peterborough South MP Philip Lawrence and Cramahe Township Mayor Mandy Martin breezing in for a hot meal after a long day of county council.
Go in the back door of the Colborne Pentecostal Church at 89 Division St., then down a short flight of stairs to see the basement space that has been donated for this project. It is bright and freshly painted. A children's play area lies beyond the dining area, along with a take-a-book-leave-a-book shelf and some assistive devices made available by the Cobourg Odd Fellows' Humanitarian Services project.
And, as volunteer Bill Huras reiterated, it has all fallen into place since January, when volunteer Johanna Hill acted on the call she felt – when she believed God was asking her to open a soup kitchen.
“I said no,” Hill recalled.
“I've been a house painter for 25 years, a PSW for six years, a school-bus driver for six years, now you want me to open up a soup kitchen? I don't know how that works, I don't know how to organize this.
“He said, 'You don't have to. I will.'”
Hill talked with a few people she knew, and they were glad to get on board.
“We had nothing, but we had a vision,” Huras said of their mission to provide nourishing meals and fellowship for all who will accept, with a special focus on two groups – those whose finances are stretched and those who may feel isolated and crave contact with others.
They met with MP Lawrence Jan. 19 to discuss how to go about applying for grants (which generally go to longer-lived and more-established organizations), but did not stop there. They made the rounds and asked for support, and their success was amazing.
“The doors started opening, we started getting phone calls,” Hill said – like the one from the Peterborough businessman closing down his pizza parlour with cabinetry to donate. Colborne's Cam Tran donated a bunch of skids she fashioned into shelving. And they were delighted to luck into an actual location when Pastor Sid Benson donated the space at the church, just across the street from the Keeler Centre (though she stresses that Coventry is not affiliated with any particular church).
“It puts me in awe, all the things that have happened in a short period of time,” she said.
“Everything here is donated, right down to the paint on the floor,” Huras said.
