Loaves & Fishes Kitchen
Ph: (413) 731-5668
Fax: (413) 737-6811
Email: kitchen@openpantry.org
Contact: Darleen St. Jacques, Program Director
Our Loaves & Fishes Community Kitchen and Holiday Meals program has provided prepared meals to people who are poor or homeless in Greater Springfield on a daily basis since it began in 1980. Lunch and supper are available seven days a week to anyone who comes to our door. From July 2010 until June 2011, we served 78,836 meals.
Loaves & Fishes operates in three downtown churches:
Monday through Friday
Christ Church Cathedral, 35 Chestnut Street
Saturdays
South Congregational Church, 45 Maple Street
Sundays
Shiloh Seventh Day Adventist Church, 797 State Street.
Over 750 volunteers from faith communities, civic groups, area businesses and student organizations are involved in the preparation and serving of nutritious meals.
Many of our guests are people who are homeless or near to becoming homeless. They may be living on the streets, in cars, in shelters, or with other people. Some have disabilities and we are seeing an increasing number of working poor. Guests include children, adults, and elderly. Approximately 25% of guests suffer from mental illnesses and approximately 55% struggle with chronic substance abuse.
Loaves & Fishes is a life sustaining service and essential to the health of people who are poor or homeless. Providing meals is not only a way to prevent malnutrition and improve health, but also a way to connect people to other essential services.
Loaves & Fishes staff serves as outreach workers. Through this process, they help people connect to case management and substance abuse counseling services provided at Open Pantry's Open Door Social Services program and elsewhere in the Greater Springfield area.
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