After over 20 years of operation at the former Salvation Army Community Center on Trail’s Rossland Avenue, Kate’s Kitchen will serve its last meal on Mar. 20.
Kate’s Kitchen provides free lunch programs on weekdays from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. for families and community members in need.
The program will be relocating and rebranding to Sally’s Place on Mar. 21.
In September, the Salvation Army wrapped up a major project that saw all of its social services moved into one building at the former Sears building on Cedar Avenue.
Captain Eric Olson, the core officer for the Salvation Army in Trail, said that Sally’s Place will join the rest of the organization’s social services at the Cedar Avenue centre.
The move provides the organization with the opportunity to have all of its services under one roof, stated Olson, who added that the decision to rebrand gives the program a fresh start.
“We wanted to start with a fresh name. It’s a different location. It’s a different look. It’s a different feel. We didn’t want to bring any sort of association with the older, run-down building with us in the new look.”
Sally’s also features a much larger kitchen. At Kate’s, volunteers were operating in an improvised cooking facility, with just household kitchen appliances.
Olson explained that they received a grant from the province to develop a full-size, commercial kitchen at the new center, which will offer the ability to provide different food varieties, and the potential to expand its programs in the future.
“We were able to get a grant to upgrade to a full commercial kitchen, which will provide us the opportunity to offer different kinds of meals and broader meal options available to people, rather than just one meal option a day. With the new kitchen we have, the sky’s the limit for new opportunities.”
The move will also save the organization money. Olson said the Salvation Army owns its new facility on Cedar Avenue but has been paying rent to operate Kate’s Kitchen out of the Rossland Avenue building.
The demand for food programs and in its food bank has significantly grown over the last few months. In February, the organization’s food bank saw over 60 families requiring assistance, with about 20-30 people utilizing Kate’s Kitchen.
The number of people accessing the organization’s food services nearly doubled from the year prior, with about 35-40 households using the food bank service in February 2023.
Olson said the new kitchen will allow the Salvation Army to increase the capacity of people it can serve and provide better accessibility for community members needing its services.
“The new facility has seating for 48 people, whereas the other facility was quite a bit smaller. The challenge we’ve been seeing at the Rossland Avenue location is that it’s been a challenge for some people to get to, which is why we wanted to ensure that the new location is centrally located in our facility downtown.”
Sally’s Place will officially open on Mar. 21 at 1460 Cedar Avenue in Trail.