PMC Team to Serve at Soup Kitchen Reopening

The Benton Harbor Soup Kitchen, which closed down its dining room in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has decided to resume serving full meals as of May 1, 2022. The first community group that will serve the community will be from Pioneer Memorial Church.

"We serve the first Sunday of every month, and this one is special," said Daniel Drazen, volunteer coordinator for the team that serves at the Soup Kitchen. "Along with other groups who volunteer to work in the Soup Kitchen, we've been mainly preparing sandwich sacks for Soup Kitchen patrons to take out since March of 2020. Now, we're going back to providing a hot meal. We did hot entrees a few times in place of sandwiches, putting them in cups with lids for patrons to take out, especially during cold weather. Now we're going back to a casserole entree, fresh salad, veggies, the works."

Some precautions will be in place due to the lingering reality of COVID-19: patrons will be asked to wear masks except when eating, and the dining room will be separated from the kitchen by plexiglass partitions.

"It's still going to be work, a little different from putting together sandwich sacks. Still, we've done it before and we've got to dust our skills off and do it again. The team believes in our mission: to serve the community however we can, and feeding the hungry is very much a part of that mission. It's Christianity 101."