Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ULSTER SOUP KITCHEN SERVES UP 20,000 MEALS
Support for vulnerable and isolated
A SOUP kitchen has now prepared, cooked and delivered around 20,000 meals since the beginning of the pandemic.
The initiative was run from the Elim Church on Donegall Pass before moving to King Street Kitchen in Bangor.
Owner of the Co Down restaurant, Portavogie man Aaron Hanna, said the team are delighted at the support the community gave over the past year.
Along with a number of volunteers, including Ian Shanks from the ACT Initiative, hundreds of isolated and vulnerable residents in the area have been given a point of contact and someone to talk to at a time they needed it most.
Aaron told the Mirror: “It has been amazing. We started this up not thinking much of it and didn’t expect it to go as well as it did but it has been fabulous. It has been great first of all for the people doing it, especially myself.
“I am used to working so much all of the time with having my own restaurant and being so busy, to then having so much time on my hands. It has given me something to focus on.
“The feedback we have got from the recipients of it has been excellent. It’s been people who were selfisolating and pensioners living on their own who couldn’t get out.
“It started off by giving them a dinner to let them know people were thinking of them.
“Whoever was taking the meals to the houses would maybe stop [outside] and have a chat with them so they weren’t feeling so isolated. That was maybe the only person they were getting to see all week.” The team of volunteers are thanking everyone who has given a helping hand over the past 12 months and Aaron has praised everyone for their selflessness. He added: “Anybody who has helped someone else over the pandemic is basically a hero.”
At the beginning, the initiative was self-funded by donations from community groups but the team were granted some funding shortly after. And back in December, Aaron also made sure the lonely and elderly in his local area were brought a Christmas dinner.