Before the COVID pandemic, Nazareth House, a prominent soup kitchen in the Gibraltar community, was serving up to 26 people daily. As more and more people hit tough times during the pandemic, though, the community relied more and more on them. Demand rose to over 50 people daily, many of them appearing for multiple meals to feed their families. Even post pandemic the demand has remained high as low-income households deal with increasing cost of living.
The ability to serve this many people was a real challenge Nazareth House faced. At the soup kitchen, capacity of how many individuals can receive meals is limited in part by the equipment on hand to safely store food. Prepared food had to be served timely as there was not adequate storage to extend serving hours, and only so much raw food for future meals could be acquired. Staff tried to make do with several small, secondhand refrigerators to keep enough food stored safely.
“These selfless people were already managing one big balancing act,” said Brandon Sosa, CEO of the Barzilai Foundation. “Once the food is prepared, it needs to be served promptly before it spoils, which limits how much they can prepare and when they can serve it. The ability to meet the needs of the community was limited by not having a proper solution for storing the food.”
The Barzilai Foundation has sponsored the installation of a walk-in refrigeration unit that will meet the needs of the soup kitchen. With this cooler on hand, the team can immediately increase their capacity of meals served. Going forward, Nazareth House anticipates the increase in demand will continue and that they will be able to meet that demand because of these new storage capabilities, all while reducing their cost to operate the soup kitchen, reducing overall food waste and improving their ability to plan smoothly.
“Enabling Nazareth House to increase their output substantially is significant,” said Sosa. “This comes down to people being able to eat and feed their families. This solution means that many more people will be taken care of for years to come.”
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