St. Vincent Place is currently facing an emergency – it's out of soup.
“We've run out of cans of soup for what might be the first time ever,” said Sara McCleary, marketing manager at St. Vincent Place.
Staff and volunteers at St. Vincent Place – a food bank, soup kitchen, thrift store and men's transitional residence located on Albert Street East – are asking the public to step forward with donations of cans of soup.
“We're out of soup and hoping the community can help us get through until our Big Blue Food Drive in September. As much as we can get would be helpful.
"Soup is in every package that goes out. We give out 30 packages and 30 cans of soup every time the soup kitchen or the food bank is open,” McCleary told SooToday.
The St. Vincent Place food bank is open from 4:30 to 7 p.m. on Wednesdays and 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays.
The soup kitchen is open for clients during those same hours on a takeout basis.
“I’d say we need 500 cans of soup as soon as possible. We're low on pretty much everything right now. Soup is a big one and it's unusual to be out of soup because it's such a staple item so any donation is helpful.”
McCleary said St. Vincent Place is grateful for past donations of pasta and toilet paper from Metro and Canadian Tire, but now they're appealing to the public for help with soup.
“The biggest help is the small donations that come in from individuals. They all add up. That's definitely what makes up the majority of our donations.
Looking forward, the St. Vincent Place Big Blue Food Drive takes place Saturday, Sept. 27.
Members of the public are asked to leave food donations in a clean, sturdy box or bag at the curb of their homes for 10 a.m. that day for volunteers to pick up and take to the St. Vincent Place soup kitchen to be stored.
“It used to be the Big Blue Box Food Drive. That was encouraging folks to use their blue recycling bins but now that we don't have those, we've dropped the blue box and it's just the Big Blue Food Drive,” McCleary said.
Food donations can be dropped off from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday to Friday at the St. Vincent Place office at 222 Albert St. E.