Soup kitchen still going strong

Volunteers do the lifting

NEWPORT – When the federal government shutdown impacted SNAP benefits last fall, locals Brad Hanson and Patti Monk organized a free, daily Shutdown Soup Kitchen at the Hospitality House in Newport with the idea that it would temporary.

Over a year later the free kitchen is still going 4-5 p.m., Monday-Sunday.

“Last night we served around 21 people,” Hanson said. “We have had over 25 people sometimes and others we’ve had as few as five or 10. We don’t turn anyone away.”

Since opening, the soup kitchen has never had a night where someone didn’t come to dinner. Completely operated by volunteers who cook, clean, set up and tear down, dinners are made from whatever food is donated to the kitchen via the Hospitality House. There are around 20 volunteers who help with meals. Some people like Monk and Hanson, who are both retired, are there nearly every day while others schedule their volunteer times around work and family obligations. The Hospitality House, a non-profit, pays for volunteers’ food worker permits.

Monk said it costs approximately $400-$500 a month to operate the kitchen.

“People call it the soup kitchen, but we serve different kinds of meals, depending on what we have available,” Monk said. “Pastas, shepherd’s pie – whatever food we have donated to us and whatever volunteers can cook.”

The age range of guests coming in for meals are children with families to senior citizens in the sixties and seventies. There are always two volunteers at every dinner.

“It’s not just young families being shorted by SNAP, it’s also people that are Patti and mine’s age living on social security and trying to make rent that is $900-$1,000 a month,” Hanson said.

Three weeks ago, the Kalispel Tribe of Indians donated buffalo meat to the kitchen and the Newport Food Bank will occasionally donate bread or a dessert if they have surplus. Food and monetary donations are always appreciated, Monk said.

Despite their differences in political opinions, Monk and Hanson are longtime friends with a common goal: Feed people.

“It’s safe to say I’m conservative; I believe people should do their best to help themselves,” Hanson said. “I also think it’s important to realize there’s a portion of our population that have worked hard their whole lives and still don’t have the things that you or I take for granted.”

Donations and volunteers are needed for the soup kitchen. Call the Hospitality House from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. weekdays for more information at 509-4473812. The Hospitality House also keeps a non-perishable food donation table for those in need.