History Of Eva's Soup Kitchen

How to Start a Soup Kitchen | The History of Eva's Kitchen

How do you start a soup kitchen? Quite simply, you first identify a need and the rest follows. Founder Monsignor Vincent E. Puma, a small group of clergy, religious, and concerned laypersons began Eva’s Kitchen in direct response to the growing crisis on the streets of Paterson. The kitchen served frank and beans for its first meal to 30 homeless people in April 1982. At that time it was located in the basement of an old convent on Hamilton Street.

The Mission

• People cannot begin to change their lives if they’re hungry, so first we have to feed them
• If they have no place to sleep, we shelter them
• If they are in the grip of addiction, we show them the path to a clean, sober and productive life
• If they are debilitated by disease, we must treat their medical ailments

How Do We Get Our food and/or Money Donations?

Sister Gloria Perez, Executive Director of Eva’s Village, notes that the Eva’s Village mission of feeding the hungry through our soup kitchen has never been determined by the rate of donations, but by the need.

It is important to try to make each program self sustaining and not dependent on unrestricted funding. Over the past several years as the economy has struggled, so has Eva’s Village, with some corporate and foundation funders reducing the size of their support or eliminating it all together.

But our dedicated staff has been very proactive in discovering new source of funding and has initiated a new charity corporate volunteer program called: “Bond, Boost, and Build”, reaching out to New Jersey corporations to educate them on the plight of the most unfortunate among us and to make it easier for employees and their employers to get involved in the mission of Eva’s Village.

Achievements

• Eva's Village has grown from a simple soup kitchen to a 14 - program comprehensive anti-poverty organization to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, treat the addicted and provide medical and dental care to the poor.
• During 2010, a total of 135,380 hot lunches were served (20% increase from 2007).
• In 2011 we again expanded the kitchen to better serve our clients.
• Today we serve a hot lunch to the hungry and homeless, without turning anyone away, 365 days/year serving on average 350 lunches/day.
• Additionally, clients living in our Shelters and Recovery Programs are served meals daily, making the total meals served by Eva's Kitchen more than 350,00 annually.
  

Eva's Kitchen Volunteers

Volunteers are an integral part of the running of our New Jersey Soup Kitchen. Our volunteers are both individuals, employees from local businesses (part of our charity corporate volunteer program), and members from local religious, civic and educational groups.

You can help the over 11.5% New Jersey residents who don't have enough to eat. Eva's Kitchen serves a hot, balanced, nutritious lunch to 350 people 365 days a year. No one is turned away in our soup kitchen program.