A Food Ministry of UUCville

If you can’t feed 100 people, feed just one. ~ Mother Theresa 

UUCville Soup Kitchen’s mission is to feed lunch to anyone needing a noon time meal on Sundays at The Haven in downtown Charlottesville.

Over 30 years ago, under Satyendra Huja’s leadership, a team of volunteers from formerly Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church, now UUCville, along with six other downtown churches joined together ensuring that the food scarcity population in Charlottesville, would have a regular mid-day meal seven days a week. No questions asked. No qualifications are required. UUCville has traditionally served on Sundays.

The original lunch location was on Market St. in the former “Daily Progress” building. When that site was no longer available, meals were served at the On Our Own location on 4th St., NW where approximately two dozen Sunday meals were served each week. Currently, The Haven on Market St. serves breakfast three days a week and partners with the six other churches to serve lunches each day of the week. Over the years the number of people served has increased to over sixty each Sunday.

UUCville’s Soup Kitchen ministry consists of six teams with 10 members each. A team serves every six weeks. Each team is self-funded and provides food, beverages and paper products and decides, as a group, what the lunch menu will be.

The teams not only plan, provide and prepare the food, but they also serve the meal to The Haven’s guests. Soup Kitchen team members often bring their children to help serve and clean up. Many of these folks speak of the life changing lessons learned when working on this mission—how easy it is to provide the meals, how appreciative and grateful the guests are, and unfortunately, how the need seems to increase each year.

The Soup Kitchen teams always welcomes new members. Contact: Bonnie Hansen and Elizabeth Breeden at soupkitchen@uucharlottesville.org.

UUCville Food Ministries:

1. CareNet
2. Ebenezer Baptist Church Thanksgiving Baskets
3. Food Sharing Sunday
4. Food Pantry
5. Funeral Receptions
6. Meal Packets for UVA Health System families
7. PACEM
8. Soup Kitchen
9. Sunday a.m. Social Hall
10. Thanksgiving Dinner

Read other stories brought to you by the Stewardship Steering Committee

Giving is an Attitude: UUCville’s Social Action Collection

Warmer, Safer, Drier: UUCville Appalachia Service Project Trip