Soup Kitchen Charity Express
The staff, administration and volunteers of downtown Wheeling soup kitchens are heroes. They feed hundreds of people daily at several congregate meal sites with a “hodge-podge” of donated food items. It’s a real juggling act. Nutritionally speaking, it’s the same ole’ same ole, ‘ American diet: lots of pasta, potatoes and sugary deserts. Fresh produce is rare. Locally grown produce is rarer. In 2007, The Small Farm Training Center began making weekly deliveries of freshly picked organic veggies. The cooks beam when we walk through the kitchen with boxes of spinach, chard, beets, lettuce, squash, tomatoes and green beans. Last summer, we commemorated four continuous years of soup kitchen deliveries by setting a new delivery record, 33 farm to city deliveries.