Backstory:

The number of food insecure individuals in Waldo County is NOT declining. On the contrary. During the last three years, Belfast Soup Kitchen increased the meals served from 14,000 to 21,000 and we have outgrown our rented space. We searched for an existing building to purchase and renovate but none were adequate to meet our needs. Fortunately, in response to a newspaper article in The Free Press, a community member came forth with a generous donation for the purchase of land located at 31 Belmont Avenue in Belfast that allowed us to move forward with our vision for a new 3500 square foot building.

One Step Closer

Thanks to a few generous donors, we were able to begin the planning and design of our new home in early 2019. We purchased land, obtained a grant for remediation and site development, received approval from the Belfast Planning Board and our architect 2A architects, llc designed the building to our functional specifications. Groundbreaking began in June 2019.

Building Design

• Main seating area to accommodate 80+ guests at one seating
• Meeting room that seats 14 for training and other guest services
• Ergonomic commercial kitchen area with a commercial propane range, ventilation hood, and fire suppression system
• Large food storage room and external walk-in cooler and freezer
• Energy efficient and environmentally sustainable design

Program Expansion

Aimed at addressing the root causes of hunger and poverty, our new home will allow us to:

• Expand our educational services to include literacy, computer skills and nutritious meal preparation training
• Increase partnership and collaboration with local organizations to support guests to become more integrated in our community
• Improve preventive health care such as health screenings
• Achieve financial sustainability in fulfillment of our mission

The Belfast Soup Kitchen new building will be an anchor and a community resource to give HOPE to the most vulnerable in our area.  With the new facilities the BSK will collaborate with other volunteer organizations and demonstrate that our community cares!