Salvation Army puts cheap meals on back burner

Morning North5:30Salvation Army explains decision to discontinue cheap meals

The Salvation Army is making needed renovations to its kitchen. As a result it needs to discontinue its affordable meal service for the time being. The CBC's Kate Rutherford finds out more.

The Salvation Army in Sudbury says people will no longer be able to buy cheap meals at its soup kitchen.

People who don't live at the hostel have been able to buy a $3 breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Starting Aug. 20 that will end, and a free Sunday meal will end as well.

Major Mike Hennessy said the kitchen is in dire need of repairs and they can't fix any extra meals. On top of that, he said he's lost one of his part time kitchen staff.

We needed to reduce somewhere our kitchen workload and, in doing so, are temporarily discontinuing our community meals.

He said he hopes the change is temporary and for now, feeding the people who live at the hostel remains their priority.

We don't have the ability right now to [say] what it will look like down the road, Hennessy said.

The changes means there are some people, mostly men, who won't have anywhere else to go, said Denis Constantineau, who is with the Centre Santde Communautaire, a francophone community health advocacy group.

People who are barred from the Samaritan Centre, the soup kitchen, for whatever reason are accessing meals there.

Constantineau said young men from the Youth Action Centre also ate at the Salvation Army.

He says the network of social agencies in Sudbury will pull together to help those unable to find a meal.