Renovations at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church forced a soup kitchen to find a new home.
St. Joe’s soup kitchen, which has operated out of the church’s basement for the last 40 years, will be relocated to First Presbyterian Church at 12 West 12th St. and Fifth Avenue. Although the soup kitchen’s new home is not far, the move represents the end of a 40-year-long tradition run out of the basement of St. Joseph’s Church.
Hungry New Yorkers stopped by St. Joseph’s for the last time on Saturday, Dec. 14. The move to the new location will happen this weekend.
“I’m sad to see them move, but happy that they will continue to serve those in need,” said Father Boniface Endorf in an email.” The parish and the soup kitchen along have tried work out some way to keep the soup kitchen in the basement for the last year, Father Boniface added.
But given the work needed to renovate the building and bring the basement up to code, “the soup kitchen decided that it was best to fulfill their mission at a new location.”
The soup kitchen at the St. Joseph’s will serve meals at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday afternoons. First Presbyterian Church did not respond to a request for comment.
