The Soup Kitchen at St Barnabas often feeds over 2,000 meals a month. They had a need, and the generous community of McMinnville answered.
The soup kitchen was in desperate need of a new dishwasher, but commercial dishwashers and installation looked like it would run about $10,000. That just wasn’t in the budget. A group of community members participating in 2015 – 2016 Leadership Mac, a McMinnville Area Chamber of Commerce 9-month professional development program, heard about the need through its iLead community projects discussion and decided to take on the project as well as many others. The News Register ran an article about it on Christmas Eve. With a tight turn-around needed, The Leadership Mac members used social media, word-of-mouth and spread the news through The Clean Plate Club at St. Barnabas Soup Kitchen campaign.
They experienced an overwhelming response to help. Altogether, $30,147.00 was raised in about one month’s time.
The Board of Directors of the Soup Kitchen at St. Barnabas has big plans. After the initial project, which will soon be completed, they will be able to do other much needed kitchen upgrades. (These will occur as the board carefully evaluates and maximizes the contribution to the Soup Kitchen at St. Barnabas’s mission).
For further information about the Leadership Mac program contact Rhonda at the Chamber.