The Community Kitchen feeds the hungry.

We served over 27,000 meals this year

Old, young and in-between, male and female, families and singles. These are some of the folks who eat lunch at our Community Kitchen every day, where kitchen director Belle Carlisle, assistants Karl and Juanita, and numerous volunteers serve an average of 110 patrons each day. When we open the doors at noon, visitors are already lined up in the cold, hot, rain or sunshine. They come for various reasons: some are disabled, some are seniors living on fixed incomes, some are working at low-wage jobs, and some have children who are out of school for the summer. Others may be experiencing unemployment or other temporary setbacks.

Ms. Belle has been serving lunches at Urban Ministry for 27 years, and in that time, she is proud to say that we have never turned a single hungry person away. Visitors leave nourished in body, and may take with them some donated breads or pastries, fruit or vegetables, and sometimes even leftovers to help tide them over until their next meal. They know they always have a place they can go when times are hard.

This year, we saw a lot of new faces, but we also celebrated as some of our regular visitors found jobs. We've recently begun tracking our visitors using the HMIS Continuum of Care system, and what we've found is that a surprising number are homeless or transient. By registering clients in the Continuum of Care system, our staff social worker Jeff Bowman is able to have face time with these clients and help connect them to much-needed social services and other forms of assistance. 

The Community Kitchen is a part of our mission to provide compassion by helping to meet immediate needs including food and shelter. All of our programs aim to provide compassion and wholeness. Will you support that mission today? 

 

Thank you, friends. Many different people are blessed by your support.

We are grateful for many Community Kitchen partners and funders including Magic City Harvest, One Roof Alabama, Community Food Bank, Estelle Campbell Foundation, the City of Birmingham, the Eva Comer Trust, and the numerous other church groups, companies, donors, and volunteers who support this effort.

Volunteer at the Kitchen