Just four days after closing due to COVID-19 concerns, Penticton’s Soupateria has re-opened.
Soupateria president, Tracy Comber announced on social media that the soup kitchen will be open again for bagged lunch service from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m beginning Friday (April 3).
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The organization initially closed due to health and safety concerns for its volunteers and clients. Soupateria works with over 125 volunteers. Comber said they previously closed because it was “pretty much impossible” to keep them safe with different people coming in on different days.
In the days that Soupateria was closed, Comber was working with the city, OneSky, and Interior Health to come up with a way to re-open without putting anyone at risk.
The solution was to hire four paid employees to work in the kitchen, with only two people working at a time.
The Soupateria serves approximately 100 free lunches to Penticton residents each day. All food served comes entirely from community donors.
The indoor dining room has been closed since March 16 to promote social distancing among clients and Comber said she’ll now be taking additional measures, such as putting tape on the ground, to ensure people keep their distance from each other.
Comber said it was extremely important to her to be able to re-open during such trying times. She plans on keeping the soup kitchen open to support the community throughout the entirety of the COVID-19 crisis.
“With what’s going on, I imagine I’m going to be seeing new faces,” she said.
“All of us have been working tirelessly to find a way to get the kitchen open again while keeping the people inside the Soupateria and the people outside the Soupateria safe.”
READ MORE: Penticton Soupateria dining room shutting down March 16
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