St. Vincent DePaul Society's new dining hall opens next month

VINDICATOR EXCLUSIVE

By Kalea Hall

khall@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

After weeks of being without a spot to make and serve food to the needy, the St. Vincent DePaul Society has a new dining hall.

The new dining hall in the fellowship hall of St. Cyril and Methodius Church, 252 E. Wood St., will open sometime next month.

“We will get it [open] as soon as possible,” said Jessica Robinson, executive director for the Mahoning County District of the St. Vincent DePaul Society. “We don’t know the exact start date.”

Robinson expects the hall to be ready by mid-to-late August.

St. Vincent DePaul has to prepare the location for serving daily meals. Crews were seen this week taking materials from the now-shuttered location at 208 W. Front St. and loading them into a U-Haul vehicle to take to the new location.

The old dining hall, which St. Vincent has operated since the mid-1980s, served its last meals June 30. The building was then closed 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 cost to fix the issues at the old building was in the thousands, so the decision was made to find a new location.

“We are happy to move on to a fresh start,” Robinson said.

An official decision on what to do with the old building has yet to be made, she added.

The new location is on a bus route and near the St. Vincent DePaul Society’s food pantry at 317 Via Mount Carmel Ave.

“We would like to thank the [Catholic] Diocese and everyone that helped us get to this point,” Robinson said. “It’s a lot of work.”

St. Vincent DePaul also is thankful to St. Cyril for its collaboration to help St. Vincent continue its mission of serving those in need.

The new hall will offer lunch from 10:30 a.m. to noon, but typically the dining-hall manager is in early to give out coffee and doughnuts.

St. Vincent’s school-supply distribution still will take place on Front Street across the street from the old dining hall Aug. 12, Robinson said.