It was a busy holiday Monday at the Gathering Place as the local soup kitchen hosted a Thanksgiving dinner.
Dennis Chippa, executive director at the Gathering Place located on Cassells Street in North Bay, says they had an incredible turnout.
"We did about 260 meals and about 100 were people that came in," explained Chippa who credits the many volunteers for helping make the meals.
"That is actually pretty good, even for when we are open. We are open on a regular basis now and we still see maybe one-third that want to use the dining facility so there was definitely more than that as opposed to a normal meal. We prepped for 300 so everything all worked out. A lot of the people we had not seen indoors in a while so the cooler temperatures probably brought a few more people inside."
Chippa was also thrilled with the community support as one North Bay woman made homemade pumpkin tarts, Doordash came on board to buy some groceries and COBS Bread Bakery donated 300 buns towards the cause.
"That is really a fantastic piece for the community to come together and support us and I think that is a really good example of the kind of things that the community does," said Chippa.
Chippa admits he has seen more people using the facility including a spike in September usage.
"It is a reflection of what we are seeing every day," he said.
"There were a lot more seniors, there were a lot more women. We have seen a lot more females over the last six months. We did see a few more families come in. We had a lot of people calling and asking about the meal and asking for extra meals for family members and I have to think these are people who have not come in here regularly."
