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Soup kitchen needs a helping hand

Agape Table short of money to feed the less fortunate

By: Carol Sanders

Posted: 09/18/2009 8:32 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Mark Courtney (left), standing with Richard Nepinak, says it's hard for the smaller organization to gather momentum in terms of fundraising. (WAYNE.GLOWACK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA )

ONE of Winnipeg's oldest and busiest soup kitchens has fallen on hard times.

Agape Table is struggling with debt after a double-digit decrease in donations so far this year.

"We're down almost 12 per cent," said treasurer Dave Yuill.

"We're in the red this year for sure," he said. "We're trying to recoup some of that loss."

The soup kitchen that began in 1989 operates out of All Saints Church in the West Broadway neighbourhood and feeds 250 people a day. It's run by dozens of volunteers, four part-timers and just one full-time staff person, Mark Courtney.

"We're a smaller organization," said Courtney, Agape's general manager. "We have a very small amount of money that goes to administration."

That has its benefits and drawbacks, Courtney said.

"We're all very plugged in to the day-to-day comings and goings and spend a great deal of time on the floor" with Agape's guests.

Being lean with a small staff is also a challenge.

"It's difficult to bring a whole lot of momentum at once in terms of fundraising," said Courtney.

And right now, they need some momentum, said the treasurer.

"In the last couple of years, we were in the black," said Yuill, who has volunteered with Agape since 1996.

"I can recall a couple of times when we had to pay bills selectively, but for the last four or five years we were not living so hand-to-mouth," said Yuill. Until now, Agape has relied mainly on word-of-mouth, their newsletter and brochures for donations. Survival means stepping up their efforts to keep their guests fed.

They've launched an advertising campaign to find new donors, said Yuill.

"Our core donors donate year after year, some once a year, some every three months. Those donations don't seem to have suffered," said Yuill. "It's the new donor and first-time donors we're not seeing as much of," he said.

The downturn in the economy may be part of the problem.

"In the last year, it's probably been true that there's more people being a little more careful with their money," said Yuill.

The soup kitchen, meanwhile, isn't seeing a downturn in hunger.

"We see a lot more children now because we run a program for preschool children and their families apart from the daily soup kitchen. We see more kids because we target them."

Many of those kids and the older Agape Table visitors would go hungry before ever letting on to friends and teachers they were hungry. Pride and the stigma attached to being poor prevent them from asking for help. Agape and its fundraising campaign are asking for a hand to help keep them fed.

For information see www.agapetable.ca or call 783-6369.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

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