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East Toledo soup kitchen facing food shortage, higher demand

The soup kitchen at Helping Hands of St. Louis Church in east Toledo is facing a food shortage. The shelves in the pantry look stocked, but there's an underlying problem: A major distributor of food for Helping Hands folded, and demand is up.

TOLEDO, OH (Toledo News Now) - The soup kitchen at Helping Hands of St. Louis Church in east Toledo is facing a food shortage.

The shelves in the pantry look stocked, but there's an underlying problem: A major distributor of food for Helping Hands folded, and demand is up.

The amount of food stamps for some clients has been cut and more low income residents are moving into east Toledo because of low housing costs.

So far this year, the number of people coming to Helping Hands for lunch has doubled.

"Normally it's around holidays, but it's been pretty much all summer. We just try to keep up. And we're slacking a little bit because we can't get the food that we need," said kitchen director Paul Cook.

Dee Haack has served meals there for four years. She hopes the community will step forward with food donations or money so clients won't go hungry.

"These are our people. These are the people we're supposed to be helping, looking after," she said.

Helping Hands needs eggs, tuna fish, peanut butter and more.

"It's the canned goods we're doing OK with. It's the meat and milk and stuff like that we're having a problem with," Cook said.

If you'd like to lend a helping hand, call 419-691-0613.

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