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St. Vincent to open new dining hall Monday
By Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
Leaders of the St. Vincent de Paul Society are hopeful the new dining hall will serve regular clients and bring in new clients.
The new dining hall at 252 E. Wood St. in the fellowship hall of St. Cyril and Methodius Church will open Monday with a potluck lunch.
Lunch will be served from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The doors of the dining hall will open one hour before lunch is served.
An official grand-opening ceremony will take place Sept. 27, the feast day of St. Vincent de Paul.
The new location is up Watt Street, which is off East Rayen Avenue.
Monday’s lunch is the first St. Vincent has served since its former location on Front Street was closed in early July after the Mahoning County Building Inspection Department found it to be unsafe.
An employee complaint prompted a safety-hazard inspection June 23, and that inspection reportedly found a collapsed ceiling above a second-floor office, rotting floor under compartment sinks on the first floor and rotting floor-joist tails in the basement.
The building, at 208 W. Front St., is now for sale. It’s valued at $79,000.
The expense involved with fixing the hazards and the recurrence of those hazards led the St. Vincent de Paul Society’s board of directors to find a new location.
“It’s a new fresh start for us,” said Jessica Robinson, executive director of St. Vincent de Paul’s Mahoning County District.
The new location had to be updated with a new storage area, plumbing and electricity.
“Just getting our equipment in here took some time,” Robinson said.
Robinson believes the new location is still accessible to the people who often visited the Front Street location, but she also sees the dining hall getting in new clients.
Across the street is the St. Vincent pantry.
“I think [those clients] will come over here,” she said.
The Front Street location served 200 meals a day, and the same is expected at the new location.
“It’s like a breath of fresh air,” said Wayne Murray, kitchen manager at the dining hall. “You just see the potential growth here. We will be seeing a new clientele. Our numbers will grow in this area.”
Some clients of St. Vincent de Paul wished to see the dining hall stay in a more central location downtown.
“I got to walk up the hill and back down,” said George Westmoreland of Youngstown.
“These soup kitchens mean a lot to the community,” said Matthew Smith of Warren. “Without them, we wouldn’t have anything to eat. It’s not a good location like it was downtown, but we need these soup kitchens.”
St. Vincent is in need of food donations of any kind. The dining hall asks for donations to be dropped off during hours of service: 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday.
“We are asking for new volunteer groups to come in,” Robinson said. “We would like people to come in and serve with us.”