SERVING UP FOOD AND FRIENDSHIP

Isabella County Soup Kitchen’s reopening offers social reconnection on top of a meal

J.T. Zalizny has been worrying about some of his friends, especially Nate and Angel.

He hasn’t seen them around town since he lost his direct connection to them once the Isabella Community Soup Kitchen closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m wondering if they’re still around and healthy,” he said. The two, who survived by scavenging and collecting, aren’t the only people Zalizny would like to see. He’s got other friends around town who he hasn’t seen since the pandemic started more than two years ago. He’s hoping that the reopening of the soup kitchen to in-person dining will help him reconnect with those friends.

The soup kitchen’s dining hall got a remodel before the pandemic, but it was only open for a couple of weeks before the facility transitioned to the distribution of meals rather than

in-person dining. During the pandemic, the kitchen got an overhaul, too, so Monday’s lunch wasn’t just a reopening of a facility due to the pandemic. It was also giving its new features their first realtime test.

Before the pandemic, the dining hall would seat maybe 75 people and would be packed to the rafters by 11:30 a.m., one of the volunteers said. Monday, traffic started trickling in between when it opened at 11 and

11:45 a.m. when things started to pick up.

The inaugural meal was chicken, rice, peas and a roll. A separate line — installed to provide bags of cold food like wrapped pastries and fruit — continued the service that the soup kitchen provided during its closure.

The soup kitchen is currently open from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the time being. Soup kitchen staff are hoping to expand that to additional days or maybe to add serving breakfast.

PHOTOS BY ERIC BAERREN — THE MORNING SUN J.T. Zalizny, of Mt. Pleasant, sits down with lunch at the Isabella Community Soup Kitchen on Monday morning. Zalizny, the first person to eat a meal in the refurbished dining hall since the start of the Covid-19pandemic, said what he’s looking for is re-establishing social connections with people he hasn’t seen in two years.

Diners at the Isabella Community Soup Kitchen got a styrofoam container with chicken, rice, peas and a roll during the first in-person meal since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday. The soup kitchen also provided drinks and a bag of cold food like fruit and pastries.