Need for help at Table heats up

Ran on Wendesday, July 18, 2007

Need for help at Table heats up
Meal demand rises in summer

By Keighla Schmidt
Leader-Telegram staff

Volunteers at Eau Claire's soup kitchen, The Community Table, are scarce during the sizzling days of summer, when demand is highest.
Serving from the basement of the Eau Claire Parks and Recreation building, The Community Table provides free meals to 60 to 100 people daily.
Last year, The Community Table served 33,000 meals and had 3,000 volunteers.
But with Chippewa Valley residents vacationing and university students gone for the summer, Community Table executive director Nadine Jentzsch said there are fewer people to serve a greater number of needy.
More people show up at the soup kitchen in summer because the weather makes it easier to travel.
"In the summer months we feed more people and have less volunteers," Jentzsch said.
Area volunteers plan, provide, prepare and serve the food, as well as clean up after the meal. Serving groups can range from five to 20 people.
Volunteers are often church, school and youth groups, she said.
On Tuesday night a team from Sacred Heart- St. Patrick Parish served a pasta and sausage dish.
Amy Naiberg, 17, of Eau Claire has volunteered with the group a handful of times. She said she enjoys doing it for a few reasons.
"Because I think that Eau Claire needs a lot more community support," Naiberg said. "I get the feeling that I helped somebody that needed it. It's better than sitting around and doing nothing."
Serving a variety of people with a variety of needs, the Community Table serves some people multiple meals each week.
Jean Rice of Eau Claire has brought her family to The Table to get meals a few times a week to lighten the food budget for the past 12 years.
"For low-income families who are stretching their food budget from month to month, it helps a lot," Rice said.
Seeing the shortage of volunteers, Rice has helped out a few times on the other side of the kitchen and volunteered to serve meals.
In addition to families stretching to make ends meet, the free meals serve people with mental and physical handicaps, people who can't work and people who are homeless.
"We see a little bit of everything," site director Peter Raleigh said.