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Water leak causes mess for local soup kitchen
Water leak causes mess for
By Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
A leaky sink has caused a messy situation for a local soup kitchen.
But the leak hasn’t stopped the St. Vincent DePaul Society from serving up lunches to the hungry.
Clients still line up to get their lunch, but instead of eating inside the Front Street dining hall, they are standing under a white tent set up in a parking lot across the street.
“We are still operating as if we are open,” said Wayne Murray, dining-hall manager.
Leaders at St. Vincent aren’t sure how long it will be before they have the dining hall reopen, since the insurance claim has to go through before the work to repair the damage begins.
Inside the hall, the floor and wall paneling had to be ripped up due to water damage, and there are several missing ceiling tiles.
Two weeks ago, Murray got a call from the St. Vincent cleaning crew about the flooded hall.
A pipe under a sink had leaked for months with no one noticing until the water weighed down so much on the ceiling that it caved.
The dropped ceiling crumbled on tables in the dining hall, and water soaked the tile floor in the dining and kitchen areas. Water damage even reached the basement of the hall, but that flooring did not need to be ripped up.
Community businesses pitched in to help the hall continue while it waits to have the mess repaired.
Buckeye Tent and Party Rentals of Youngstown donated a tent for St. Vincent to set up and still serve the needy. An
anonymous donor gave a $1,000 gift-card donation; someone else donated pizza, and the New Middletown Subway gave subs.
“We have been lucky,” Murray said.
Murray and volunteers have been out at the tent at 6 a.m. with coffee, chit-chatting with those who frequent the hall.
Though the insurance will cover the cost of damage at the hall, it will not cover the extra costs the dining hall has had from having to buy to-go foods for the 200 people the hall serves daily.
Now, since there are no more fans set up to dry the floor out, food can be heated up in the kitchen.
“Honestly, it’s just a waiting game right now,” said Jessica Robinson, executive administrator for St. Vincent DePaul Mahoning County.
The hope is to have a quote of how much the damages will cost by next week and for construction to start soon after that. When construction starts, the food will have to be made elsewhere, but it still will be served outside.
“Really we are concentrating on food donations,” Robinson said. “Monetary donations cover the cost of the extra dining needs.”
Today, St. Vincent’s Annual Steak Fry fundraiser will take place from 2 to 7:30 p.m. at St. Christine’s Parish Center, 3165 S. Schenley Ave.
In addition to St. Vincent’s, the needy also have Our Community Kitchen to go to at 551 Mahoning Ave.
The kitchen is open for breakfast from 7 to 9 a.m. and for lunch from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.