Soup Kitchen of Greater Wheeling to Continue Outside Service During Fall, Winter
Dining Room Not Expected to Reopen Until Spring
Trending
WHEELING -- The dining room at the Soup Kitchen of Greater Wheeling likely will remain closed until spring as workers there continue to adjust to the "new normal" of serving the public amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The soup kitchen will continue to serve customers by providing take-home meals for pickup outside its location at 1610 Eoff St. in Wheeling, according to Executive Director Becky Shilling-Rodocker.
Since March, workers and volunteers at the soup kitchen have been distributing meals on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Enough food for two to three meals is provided to customers at one time, and food is picked up outside their building at the curb.
"I don't think we're going to open the dining room until spring, because nothing has gotten all that much better," she said.
"The problem is the volunteers are leery of coming in because of the COVID-19, and that just leaves our staff. If we had to prepare the meals that we are delivering to people and serve it, we don't have the manpower or funds to do it."
It has come to the point where both workers and customers consider the current system normal, according to Shilling-Rodocker.
"It doesn't feel like a temporary fix right now. It feels like things have just changed, and we've eased into a very non-traditional way of operating a food kitchen," she said. "So as long as long as everyone is getting the food they need -- and we're still working with all the folks who need it -- I feel confident we're doing the right thing."
Shilling-Rodocker said putting an emphasis on curb-side service has worked out for customers because there are a lot of people not wanting to leave their homes to come to the soup kitchen.
"We are fulfilling our main mission, which is feeding the hungry," Shilling-Rodocker said. "We're keeping it as it is, because we're getting a lot of positive feedback."
This time last year, the soup kitchen was preparing and serving about 175 meals each day, she said.
Now kitchen workers are preparing enough of each item to serve 200. Many of the meals are being delivered to high rises in Wheeling.
"We've lost the social aspect of it," but I think the entire country has lost the social aspect of a lot of things," she said. "The only thing the soup kitchen is not providing right now is that ability to sit down and talk things out. We wouldn't be able to do that anyway because of social distancing."