The Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen served dinner out of the Ashley Street Center for the first time Monday night after leaving its longtime home of Wilkes Boulevard United Methodist Church.
The move came after uncertainty in late 2023 of where, if anywhere, the service could continue after being asked to leave the church following stress on the building, neighborhood and congregation. Last November, the church announced it would host the kitchen until it moved to the Ashley Street Center in April.
The Ashley Street Center also houses Room at the Inn, Columbia’s year-round homeless shelter, every night. While Monday night’s dinner went relatively smoothly, the inclusion of Loaves and Fishes introduced some challenges and complications to the shelter and the people who rely on it.
Loaves and Fishes began serving dinner at 4:30 p.m. At the same time, volunteers with the CoMo Mobile Aid Collective offered clothing and medical services at a nearby pavilion. The group is a “sister group” to Loaves and Fishes and followed it from the church. It provides its services alongside the soup kitchen every Monday and Thursday.
By 6 p.m., guests were forced outside for half an hour while soup kitchen volunteers packed up and Room at the Inn staff prepared for the night.
Preparation included the shelter’s executive director, John Trapp, searching the area for any contraband — drugs, alcohol or weapons — stashed during the dinner service. He didn’t find any Monday night.
“On days like today when it’s raining, it’s a hardship for our client base,” Trapp said. “But hopefully we don’t have too many of those days, and as time goes on, we might work out a better system that isn’t as inconvenient for our clients.”
Kimberly Campise is homeless and has been coming to Room at the Inn since last winter. She says the wait is frustrating.
“Everything is waiting,” she said, “waiting to do the normal things that you can do at home very quickly.”
Another challenge is transportation. When the church hosted the soup kitchen, Room at the Inn would send shuttles to transport people to the Ashley Street Center.
Now that the last service of the day at the church is the Turning Point day center, which ends at 3:30 p.m., there is an hour gap until Loaves and Fishes begins serving and a three-hour gap until Room at the Inn opens.
No shuttles ran Monday, so most guests had to rely on walking in the rain or taking a city bus. The bus comes twice to the Ashley Street Center in the evening, once at 3:55 p.m. and again at 5:25 p.m.
After spending time at Turning Point, Campise waited for between 30 to 45 minutes until the bus took her to Room at the Inn, she said.
Robert Leroy Dunbar Jr. also took the bus. He said it can be a challenge for homeless people, who often have to carry all of their belongings with them everywhere they go.
“If you have more than two bags, you can’t ride it,” he said.
Even if there was a shorter gap between the day center and soup kitchen, Trapp said a shuttle between the two wouldn’t be Room at the Inn’s responsibility.
“Our funders support the shelter, and we didn’t do any fundraising around supporting Loaves and Fishes,” he said.
Trapp said even if Room at the Inn wanted to continue the shuttle there are logistical issues.
“Our transportation is all volunteers, and a lot of them have day jobs,” Trapp said. “Last week, we started shuttling at 5:45. I don’t know if we could go any earlier than that, even if we wanted to. But, at this point, there’s no will.”
Trapp added the group is having conversations about how to restart its shuttle service, especially on Sundays when the city bus doesn’t run. But by the time a shuttle would be able to take people to Room at the Inn, he said, people would be in different locations around the city, and it isn’t currently clear where the shuttle should pick them up.
“I’m for sure going to do a weekend shuttle,” he said. “I’m not sure where from yet. I think (the) Wabash (Bus Station), possibly the library as well. Weekdays, I think we just got to see where people end up and then figure out where they are and how we can facilitate them getting here.”
Despite the challenges, Trapp says the transition went well and that the issues will be solved.
“Nobody went hungry and we got all of our folks in,” he said. “So, I’m going to put it on the positive pile.”
