Members of the Quality Control Council of Canada present Romero House with a cheque for $10,000 on Friday, December 20th, 2019 at the soup kitchen on Brunswick Drive in Saint John, N.B. (Tamara Steele/CHSJ News)
An extra Christmas gift for Romero House in the form of a cheque for $10,000 from the Quality Control Council of Canada.
Executive Director Evelyn McNulty says the money they receive through the year goes toward keeping the soup kitchen on Brunswick Drive in Saint John, N.B. open and to top up the donations that come in.
“We will receive all kinds of non-perishables but, we will still need to add meat and if we are missing a fresh vegetable so that is what the funding we receive is used for,” McNulty said.
Gary Mercer of the Quality Control Council of Canada says it feels fantastic to make the donation.
“We can do food donations but, they still need to cash to operate as well. That was truly a beautiful gift to be able to provide for them and it’s our pleasure to do that,” Mercer said.
Romero House has only four employees so it relies on a lot of volunteer support and operates entirely on donations from the public.
In less than 30 minutes on Friday morning, the soup kitchen was full of people and donations were coming in. They ranged from a $100 cash to crates of homemade pickles from a church and two large containers of ready-to-serve cider and hot chocolate.
McNulty says the soup kitchen is busy from the moment the doors open.
“Within the first half-hour we are open, 100 people come through easily. The dishwasher can’t keep up and then we have a little lull for about 45 minutes then it’s back to chaos. It’s organized chaos all the time here,” McNulty said.
She says Romero House will serve a full Christmas dinner next Wednesday and she’ll be there serving up spaghetti and garlic bread on Boxing Day.
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