Our Family Kitchen is open Sundays through Fridays to anyone with a need.
Westfield soup kitchen directors, chief cooks and bottle washers Allyn R. Hall and Edward J. Fournier stand in the kitchen of the Meadow Street facility.WESTFIELD – Without fanfare, the Westfield Soup Kitchen, Our Family Table, will celebrate 25 years of service to the community.
There will be cake for volunteers, the mainstay of the kitchen, but “we do not want to spend donations we receive to support the kitchen on a party,” said Allyn R. Hall, president of the board of directors.
Started in November, 1986 on the Park Square Green with just a table, peanut butter sandwiches and milk, the kitchen has grown to serve an average of about 1,200 meals monthly. The kitchen relocated from St. Mary’s High School, where it operated from 1987, about seven years ago to its current location at the former Westfield Hotel on Meadow Street.
“The need was there in 1986 and it continues today,” the 66-year-old Hall said.
The kitchen was originally started by Robert Smith of Westfield, Gary Johnson of Granville and Richard Hansen of Russell.
A year later Westfield’s Edward J. Fournier joined the effort.
“Today the kitchen is supervised by a board of directors and we thrive on the numbers of volunteers and donations,” Fournier, 77, said.
Hall and Fournier note that while the numbers of meals served each day have increased since 1986, they have remained steady for the past several years.
“We seem to feed fewer at the beginning of the month and they increase towards the end of the month,” said Hall.
The kitchen is open Sundays through Fridays at 4:45 p.m. and meals are provided by a wide range of organizations, churches, groups and schools. A calendar listing meal sponsors is prepared a year in advance, Hall and Fournier said.
The National Honor Society at Westfield High School sponsors two meals monthly and a group from the First Congregational Church in Granby, Conn. travel the farthest to volunteer, the directors said.
In addition to meal sponsors, it costs the kitchen an estimated $15,000 annually for rent and other essentials. That is covered by a grant from the city and donations from Westfield Gas and Electric Department Westfield Band, city schools, Blessed Sacrament Church and local farmers.
“We spend what we get very carefully,” offered Hall.
“The purpose of the kitchen is to provide for anyone in need. Our volunteers do this for love of fellow man,” he said.
Fournier said he got involved because “I just wanted to help people.”
Hall said he became involved at the kitchen following retirement about 12 years. “I just want to give back to the community,” he said. “It is the right thing to do.”