DECEMBER 2008 - Someone will go hungry today, but it won’t be Tim. He arrived at The Source for breakfast this morning. I approached him as he was buttering his whole wheat toast and asked him to comment on meals at The Source.
“If it wasn’t for the meals at The Source, I wouldn’t survive month to month. My disabilities keep me from working much at all, and food stamps aren’t enough to cover,” he says. Tim suffers from arthritis, gout and chronic back pain from a spine injury. Just making his way to The Source today has caused significant swelling in his knee.
While here, Tim will enjoy a variety of other services.
"Other things I get from The Source that help me survive are showers, laundry, medicine, mail, phone and lots of nice people to make friends with."
The disabled aren’t the only ones seeking hunger relief from our “soup kitchen.” Single parents, young families, the elderly, the homeless and the working poor are among those who join us at the table. A record 3,340 meals were served just last month, not including the emergency food boxes we distributed from our food pantry.
Feeding that many people isn’t easy on a ministry budget. Our Kitchen Managers, Harry and Nancy Halbert, were concerned. The solution: an energy-efficient dishwasher with rapid cycles and low water consumption. With the ability to sanitize, we could move away from using paper products and start using real dishes, giving our “soup kitchen” more of a home-like atmosphere.
“It’s going to save a lot of money on the paper goods we’ve been buying. And also the environment. I’ve always been concerned about the environment and Styrofoam,” Nancy said as she explained the many benefits of the new dishwasher.
We are happy to report that several donors stepped forward, and our new dishwasher was installed today, paid in full. We’d like to recognize the contributions of Suzanne Chesser, Illinois Tool Works, Howard and Irene Kramer, Lois Thompson, The Struwas Family, and Trinity Episcopal Church, for making this purchase possible.
