Volunteers to dish out free hot meals from new canteen truck in Glace Bay, N.S.

Souls Harbour Rescue Mission is expanding its relatively new footprint in Cape Breton.

Starting Saturday, volunteers will dish out hot meals to those in need from a canteen truck in Glace Bay, N.S.

The truck – a 2007 GMC 2500 – has plenty of kilometers on it, but is still in good enough shape to be of service.

"This food truck, canteen truck, was donated to us anonymously by a couple in CBRM,” said Terry Dwyer, a volunteer and board of directors member with Souls Harbour.

Dwyer said the truck can carry enough food for 50 people.

During the month of June, the canteen truck will be in Glace Bay on Saturday afternoons. Volunteers will have out free meals to anyone in need between 12 p.m. and 3 p.m.

“It could be soup, it could be stew, it could be chili,” said Dwyer.

“It will be something hot prepared at our Sydney Mines location. It will be loaded onto the truck and the truck will go over Saturday morning and we'll serve a hot, sit-down meal inside the church."

Souls Harbour launched the first permanent Cape Breton location in Sydney Mines in February. Dwyer said, because it has been well-used, the organization has been asked to expand to other communities.

“We're looking at New Waterford and Glace Bay for potential future locations,” he said.

“Right now, Glace Bay is an area where there is a lot of need. There is a fairly high level of poverty, even child poverty, and Glace Bay is getting up there."

The truck will be parked outside Warden United Church in the neighbourhood of New Aberdeen. Souls Harbour is looking to establish a more permanent footprint in the community.

"We'd like to partner with someone in Glace Bay who can provide a staging area and a building where people can go in and sit down and eat, have access to bathrooms and what not,” said Dwyer.

Dwyer added, before too long, there might even be drop-in centres like the one in Sydney Mines in some other communities in CBRM.

"Actually, two or three drop-in centres in the near future,” he said.

In the meantime, if the food truck is busy enough in Glace Bay there could come a time when it is parked there all week.

"Hopefully, at the end, the project will be successful and we can go Monday-to-Friday instead of Saturdays,” said Dwyer.

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