I visited the soup kitchen that Van Rowe and several volunteers operate two days a week, Monday and Tuesday, located in the county-owned building at Patrick Springs Park.
Several volunteers were busy this Tuesday preparing soup for 40 or more of Patrick County’s most needy.
Food is prepared and delivered by volunteers at no cost to the taxpayer or the people they serve.
This is a well run, county health department approved, all volunteer establishment that has been operating for some time at this location, without problems.
I did not know the Soup Kitchen existed until our board of supervisors meeting Monday night. Supervisor Boyce and I were unaware that the Soup Kitchen was ordered closed.
Two members of the Patrick County Board of Supervisors and the Recreation Committee that Supervisor Weiss is a member of met to discuss the soup kitchen. The outcome was to send a letter to Mr. Van Rowe, the lead volunteer of the Soup Kitchen, to close and vacate the building.
I did not and will not have a hand in closing this source of help for our needy citizens. With your help, we can keep the Soup Kitchen as is. Seems to me there are more pressing problems to deal with without alienating our volunteers that are providing a FREE service that caters to our needy!
I want to thank Supervisor Harris, who voted along with Supervisor Boyce and myself, to revisit the proposed closing of Patrick County’s volunteer only soup kitchen. Without Mrs. Harris’s vote, the Soup Kitchen would have been closed. Now we have a chance to keep it open. Please stand for what is right and keep this volunteer establishment for the needy open.
God bless Mr. Van Rowe and kitchen volunteers that freely give their time to help others, also those that make donations of food items that stock the shelves of the kitchen.
The board of supervisors next meeting is Monday, September 12 at 6 p.m. in Stuart.
Roger T Hayden,
Chair,
Patrick County
Board of Supervisors.
