Feeding People in Need at St. Vincent's Kitchen

St. Vincent’s Kitchen has been operating for several years with various church organizations doing the preparation of meals for 180 people in the morning, followed by a full hot meal service to our guests that evening.

Our Rotary Club was one of the first non church related groups to become involved. Some of the churches were having a difficult time getting enough volunteers to both prepare and serve the meals.

Our guests include some men and women, and even families, that are having difficulty making ends meet. Many have personal challenges such as mental illness, or drug use, or disabilities of some type.

Whitby Sunrise Rotarians serving a hot, nutritious meal.

The Administrator asked if our Rotary team would like to prepare the meal in the morning, or, serve it at supper. We realized that we have some very talented chefs in our club, and some really eager volunteers. The result was that we chose to do both preparation and serving, and have done so for the past 7 years.

The morning begins with our prep crew arriving to sort and choose the evening meal, based on the generous donations from local Grocers and wholesalers.

Then the team prepares in 3 hours meals for 180 to 200 guests—from scratch! Their ingenuity always amazes both guests and ourselves.

The afternoon team comes in to find warming trays of meats, vegetables, homemade soup, fresh bread, salads and desserts all ready for service.

Providing lots of smiles and caring along with a delicious meal.

The result of our involvement has been twofold. Firstly we are very proud to serve a really healthy balanced meal to our guests.

We treat our guests as if they were in a fine restaurant and try hard to make them feel a little more cheerful when they leave. No matter where they are from or what burdens they carry, all are equal in our eyes, and deserve our care and compassion, and a great meal!

Secondly, the regular experience brings us together as a Club. There is nothing better to build Rotary Fellowship than to be working together for a common goal.

Rotarians, family, and friends come together to help those less fortunate.

We are Rotary—we are People of Action!