Numbers of Diners Continue to Grow

The Damiano Soup Kitchen has handled large numbers of diners for years, but we are in new territory this year. Last year, the Soup Kitchen served over 93,000 meals, but we will certainly serve more this year. In July, for the first time ever, over 10,000 meals were served. Then, in August, over 11,000 meals were served, and the numbers remain high.

There is no shortage of opinions about what’s going on with the economy, but most analysts seem to agree that unemployment will remain high for the next year at least, and possibly much longer. We expect to be serving unusually high numbers of meals for a long time.

While our food bills are going up, we have been able to manage the increase so far, largely because or our use of salvaged food. At last accounting, the food costs less than 50 cents per meal. Our fixed costs (the building, insurance, staff, etc. ) are rising too, but at a slower rate.