Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer

This is the first in a monthly series featuring the charities and nonprofits recognized by Penticton’s 100 Women Who Care. Four times a year, the group meets to award three local charities a monetary grant.

Penticton's soup kitchen is still going strong, years after the need for it was recognized in the community.

The Soupateria provides a hot nourishing lunch 365 days a year at its location on Orchard Avenue.

"We continue to see a growing number of people needing our services, people from all walks of life," said volunteer coordinator Lauraine Bailie.

The Soupateria was started in the mid 1980s, when parishioners at St. Saviour's Anglican Church recognized the need to provide a hot meal to those in need.

Initially people were served from someone's house, until it moved to the basement in St. Saviour's.

The Soupateria group struggled to survive and overcame a variety of obstacles to become a registered British Columbia Society with charitable tax status in 1995.

Thanks to contributions from the local Rotary Club, the South Okanagan Community Foundation, the Vancouver Foundation and many individual donors the current Soupateria building became a reality in 2003.

In addition to serving the hot lunches every day, it offers four sit down holiday dinners.

Summer is also a busy time with farm workers coming for meals, along with local people.

"In the summer we will be feeding up to 200 people a day," said Bailie. "In this economic time it could be anybody standing in that line up, so it's good to give back."

The good work couldn't be done without the help of the community, she added.

"We rely on help from many different sources in town, and it's a great aid for us when these organizations take an interest and help us out," she said. "We really appreciate that Penticton is such a generous community."