St. Joe’s Café - Our Newly Located Soup Kitchen
Sister Mary Jean Klatt, pictured right, at the original Hospitality Centre, London, Ontario, 1983.
Forty years ago, our London downtown “soup kitchen” was named St. Joseph’s Hospitality Centre. This coming Monday, August 15th, 2022, it will be sporting a new moniker - St. Joe’s Café, as it takes up residence in its newly renovated location at 602 Queen’s Avenue. We Sisters who have prayed for the success of operating at the new address, were delighted to have a preview of the new location.
As we entered the café through the inviting waiting space, we were intrigued by the beautiful hardwood pews - kindly donated by St. Andrews Church, soon to be a resting place for guests waiting to be seated. Entering the spacious dining area, we admired bright white walls set off with pearl gray accents and millwork, forming a serene backdrop for the round tables and chairs to seat hungry guests.
Our Coordinator Tracey and Sister Margo, our Congregational Leader, were excited to greet us and point out some of the new features: newly updated stainless-steel stoves, refrigerators, and surroundings to a long, raised serving counter and roomy storage space - in large part due to kind donors and generous grants. This larger space will help us accommodate more guests, to assist those in need in our community who we hope will benefit from an inviting atmosphere, nutritious food, compassionate volunteers, and a feeling of community and deep hospitality.
Sisters make sandwiches to send to the Hospitality Centre for care packages during covid, 2020-2022. Pictured below, the many changes over the years. Sisters, Staff and Volunteers that make all of this possible.
The Hospitality Centre has changed and adapted over the years as demand has changed and grown. During the recently challenging years of Covid, when we were unable to host guests inside, our Sisters and Staff continued to feed those in need, making sandwiches and ‘take-away’ meals. On a recent Tuesday over 500 people were fed - this was the most mouths we have fed in one day. Quite a staggering and sobering number.
Also housed in the building at 602 Queens Avenue are our new partners - London Cares Homeless Response Services and Regional HIV/AIDS Connection. One can envision other endeavors to come. This is truly a partnership that we hope, by joining forces and uniting core services in one location, will enable us all to better serve the vulnerable population in London.
Our faces shone as we listened and rejoiced that another dream has come true, reaching out to continue a long-ago desire of Sister Mary Jean Klatt. In 1982, she rolled up her sleeves and in a little storefront on Dundas Street, with a couple volunteers, began to feed the hungry.
-Sister Jean Moylan, csj
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