North Bay soup kitchen fights to stay open after $140K funding request denied

North Bay soup kitchen denied funding Officials at The Gathering Place say they will fight to stay open after a request for $140,000 in funding was turned down.

The Gathering Place board chair Peter Gregory is vowing to fight to keep the doors to the Cassells Street soup kitchen open after the District of Nipissing Social Services Administration Board denied their six-figure funding request.

"We want to keep the doors open," Gregory said.

"We accepted it last month that there wasn't going to be any money coming … We've implemented different ideas to raise funds."

The social services board said it denied the request for $140,000 because the soup kitchen didn't produce the required financial documents in time.

Chairman Mark King said the board asked to see the statements to justify The Gathering Place’s operation. The decision not to provide the money was supported by almost all board members.

"They couldn't provide the documentation. So, quite frankly, there was no other alternative," King said.

"That's kind of a line in the sand. We have an obligation to spend taxpayers’ money in the right way."

But he said the decision doesn’t mean the board doesn't support the vital work done by staff at The Gathering Place. When it provided three daily meals, it served 300 meals each day.

Seventy per cent of its clients are not homeless.

King said the soup kitchen received $50,000 last year to help cover operational costs.

"There's major food insecurity in the city," he told CTV News. "But there’s a major concern about the viability of The Gathering Place and their ability to continue to support the system."

A delegation from The Gathering Place approached the board with its request in September.

"If Mark said that, then that's fine," Gregory said.

"When we walked out of the meeting last month, we said that we weren't going to go back."

In August, The Gathering Place laid off several staff members and reduced its meal service to just one per day during the lunch hour.

The decision came at a time when donations dried up and both the cost of food and client numbers skyrocketed.

The board admitted that a major misstep was not paying remittance to Revenue Canada. The Gathering Place refinanced its building to make ends meet, fixing that problem.

"Our doors are open. We want the people to come in," Gregory said.

"Don't think that the doors are closed."

The board is now looking at bringing other people on board with financial expertise or financial background to help the soup kitchen find ways to raise money.