Agape Table finds new home

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This article was published 12/03/2018 (2847 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After decades of providing meals to low-income Winnipeggers from a church hall on Colony Street, Agape Table is moving to a new home downtown.

The non-profit organization is relocating because All Saints Anglican Church (175 Colony St.) is planning to redevelop its property and the hall will no longer be available.

After searching for months for a new home, Agape Table has an agreement in principle to rent space from a church north of Portage Avenue. It will be moving a kilometre from its current location, into the Wave church (364 Furby St.), starting June 30.

Waves of Glory Full Gospel Chapel’s pastor has been very welcoming, and the building is in a great, nearby location, Agape Table board chairman Jim Steep said Monday.

“We’ve been in West Broadway for 30 years at All Saints,” Steep said. “This is really close — closer to a lot of our guests and volunteers than we are currently. I just know that we’re super happy to be super close to where we are now.

“We’d been searching for a year for a good home,” he said. “It was pretty tough to find a place that suited our needs.

“We were looking for a place that had a hall, a kitchen area, a place for offices and a place where we could still do our low-cost grocery (service) three days a week.”

The plan is to have such a seamless transition to the new location so not one of their 300 guests will miss Agape Table’s weekday breakfast, said Steep.

It won’t be a simple move, though. It will include moving Agape’s $20,000 walk-in freezer, bought in 2010 with the help of a charitable foundation.

The freezer, which measures about five metres by three metres, allowed the charity to open a co-operative that sells groceries below cost. It has also allowed it to create a low-cost breakfast program that lets clients buy a better meal for $1.

“The plan is to move the walk-in (freezer) to the Wave,” said Steep. “We have a quote on moving it, and a spot to put it.”

He said All Saints has been an excellent, accommodating landlord, adding it has extended Agape’s rental agreement twice to accommodate its search for a new home.

“We are very grateful for our 30-year relationship with them,” Steep said.

Agape Table will be turning to the community for support to help cover transition costs, kitchen renovations, and ongoing operations. The charity, which receives no government funding, needs $150,000 to cover the move and get re-established, said Steep.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca