New Soup Kitchen Feeds The Hill

Jerome Hauser, Jr., Diamond Tree, Zelinda Clark, Tony Evans, and Rev. William Mathis had half an hour to go Thursday before the expected lunchtime rush at a newly opened soup kitchen in the Hill. 

The fried chicken, beef, hash browns, and corn were hot. The takeout containers were stacked and stickered. Motivated by a commitment to feeding the hungry, the crew was ready to serve. 

Hauser, Tree, Clark, Evans, and Mathis spent much of the morning preparing for another day of giving out warm food and encouragement at 33 Lamberton St., an office building for The Spring of Life-Giving Water Church that now serves as the latest outpost for the Community Soup Kitchen.

The new soup kitchen in the Hill celebrated its one-month anniversary Thursday, after first opening its doors on March 3. 

The Hill location is one of nearly a dozen that the downtown-based Community Soup Kitchen is expanding into as it continues to nourish hungry New Haveners, including through a new partnership with the nonprofit Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS).

The 33 Lamberton St. soup kitchen is open Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Hauser, the site’s manager, and Tree, its volunteer assistant manager, said they started giving out 50 free meals a day last month. That number’s now up to 70, with the number of meals served expected to grow again next week to 80.

Mathis, who has led the church for 18 years, said that he sees this new soup kitchen as another opportunity for his church to be more than just a place for spiritual sustenance. It’s also a community center and social services hub, he said, where church members and residents and anyone in need can come by to pick up clothing (on Wednesdays); find connections to mental health, housing, and employment services; and, now, pickup warm meals as well as packaged food to go.

“People need to eat,” said Tree, summing up the soup kitchen’s mission in its most straightforward terms. And sometimes people don’t have enough to keep from being hungry.

With federal funding cuts already here — and more likely en route — for all manner of government and nonprofit-backed services, Mathis said, his church is ready to meet the need. He said the new soup kitchen’s location is ​“centrally located” for a growing immigrant community, for people struggling with drug addiction, and for others in the Hill who might bear the brunt of such funding cuts.

At around 11:30 a.m., Clark, a deacon at the church, and Evans, a local caterer and soup kitchen volunteer, lined up along the hot food trays to get ready for the noontime start.

Clark spooned corn, hash browns, and fried chicken or beef — food provided by Community Soup Kitchen HQ, as well as KFC — into plastic takeout containers. Evans then stickered shut each container before passing them along to Tree, who bagged the food. Hauser got the hot coffee ready, and took the lead in passing the warm food, as well as loaves of bread donated from Chabaso, to people who started lining up soon before noon.

First in line was James Davis.

Davis was wearing an Oakland Raiders beanie hat, even though he’s a Giants fan. He lives in the Hill, and spoke about just how much he appreciates having a soup kitchen he can walk to. Though he’s worked as a dishwasher and landscaper in the past, the Brooklyn native said he’s currently unemployed, and spends his days collecting cans.

“Without food, you can’t think, you can’t work,” Davis said. He said he’s been coming to the new Hill location since it opened last month. Asked about which food he’s liked the best so far at this location, he said, ​“Whatever you can get that the Lord blesses you with is a favorite food.”

That said, he praised this new location for serving up food that is fresh and tasty. ​“They give you stuff you can really eat.”

After serving up three more takeout meals in rapid succession — to Hill residents named Raheem, Darryl, and Francisco — Hauser went back inside the church, picked up a megaphone, and returned to the sidewalk.

“We are open!” he said to anyone within listening. ​“Put your feet on the concrete” and get some food at the new soup kitchen.

Community Soup Kitchen is currently seeking volunteers for all of its locations, including in the Hill. Click here to volunteer.