Stone Soup (Wisteria Community Association) is a 100% volunteer-powered registered charity located in Nanaimo B.C., that provides food, coffee, water, friendship, donated clothing, and other supplies for at-risk populations. E.g. blankets, socks, tents, hats, toiletries, Naloxone kits and more! This includes people who are homeless or street-entrenched due to poverty and inequity, racism, mental illness and/or substance use disorders.
Every night since March 27, 2020, in response to COVID -19 and the shut down of far too many service providers, Stone Soup volunteers have been delivering up to 200 food-safe ‘meal bags’ at several key locations in Nanaimo. (See poster).
At first, we were just a handful of people and a pick-up truck, loaded with donated supplies (e.g., sandwiches made from food from the Food Bank, coffee from McDonald’s, blankets from Khalsa Canada etc.). Within a year we purchased a van with funds from donated pop cans, and got busy building a commercial kitchen in order to be able to add hot meals and soup to our nightly service.
With donations and supplies from generous and caring businesses and individuals, building contractors who donated time and talents, and community volunteers, Stone Soup transformed an empty storefront into a modern COVID health authority certified commercial kitchen that opened in February 2023.
We are now operating our commercial kitchen 7 days a week and are delivering hot food by van to several locations in Nanaimo
We are grateful to all of our partner organizations who have helped us help others over the last two years. These include FoodRescue.ca, Nanaimo Food Bank, Khalsa Aid Canada, Fairway Market, Tillicum Lelum Aboriginal Friendship Centre, and Island Health.
We are also grateful to all the volunteers and businesses who have donated time and supplies, such as….
New Website
https://wisteriacommunityassociation.com
Stone Soup Kitchen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tD9tQ57jjQ
Stone Soup
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXE_2UllQdc
We got started because of a need for food at night for our Homeless and Low Income
