Durham Outlook for the Needy opening new soup kitchen in Oshawa later this year

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Published August 17, 2021 at 4:56 pm

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Durham Outlook for the Needy, who closed their downtown Oshawa soup kitchen last spring after 30 years and more than a million meals, will be opening new digs later this year on Simcoe Street South.

Operating as St. Vincent’s Pallotti kitchen and store and staffed by volunteers, the non-profit served their first meal in the basement of 51 King Street East on October 15, 1990.

The soup kitchen closed last year when the pandemic was declared but the organization had already planned ahead and purchased the new site in 2014 after the number of meals served at the King Street location had climbed from 40,000 annually to more than 50,000.

Last fall they sold the original building for $825,000.

There were some initial difficulties at the new site due to soil remediation, but the problem was eventually resolved, and the concrete was poured for the building earlier this year – thanks to local contractor J.J. McGuire – and the steel for the project was delivered this summer.

The new building will be a modern, fully accessible facility that will accommodate a kitchen, store, expanded dining area, boardroom and offices.

The grand opening is expected later this year.

Artist rendering (top left) Photos: Rosemary McConkey

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