After five years in Halifax, Souls Harbour Rescue Mission is expanding to Nova Scotia’s South Shore after identifying a need in Bridgewater.
“We saw a great need but we also had a special lady named Vicky who had a passion and heart for the area,” says Michelle Porter, executive director of the Souls Harbour Rescue Mission.
Vicky Sovie decided eight months ago that she wanted to help people in need. When she couldn’t find a place to set up a soup kitchen, she started operating a soup truck in the area.
“I really saw the very deep and really expansive needs here,” says Sovie, who will manage the Bridgewater location when it’s up and running.
“It’s been a real great idea,” says Lesa Croft, who has been a guest at the soup truck and has even started volunteering. “I think it’s well worth doing because it helps people and I appreciate everything that she’s done.”
Advocates say there is often a perception that homelessness and hunger are big-city problems, but they say while people may not necessarily be sleeping in the streets in a place like Bridgewater, poverty is very real.
“The needs are visible when we really stop and look around us,” says Sovie. “There are children who get up in the morning and they go to school without enough breakfast.”
Doug Quinn of the Bridgewater Inter-Church Food Bank says the need has increased by up to 40 per cent in the past few years, but donations have decreased by 10 to 15 per cent.
“I remember when 30, 32 families was a big day and now we’re regularly in the 40s and sometimes in the 50s,” says Quinn.
He attributes the need in part to the closure of the Bowater Mersey Mill, the collapse of the oil industry in Western Canada, and the rising cost of food.
Souls Harbour is still searching for a building for the Bridgewater centre. They hope to be up and running and serving nutritious meals to those in need by the end of the summer.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Kayla Hounsell
