Due to the extreme changes that COVID-19 has caused; the Laramie Soup Kitchen and Feeding Laramie Valley have changed some of their methods to ensure they can still help the Laramie community
Laramie Soup Kitchen has been offering meals to Laramie residents for the past 37 years helping those in need within Laramie.
“We work with quite a few grocery stores in town that donate things that go out of date or can no longer be sold,” Laramie Soup Kitchen Deputy Director, Sarah Carroll explained in an interview. “We also get a lot of stuff from individual donors, whether that’s just stuff in their pantry that is no longer wanted or they’re moving out.”
The biggest impact that this organization has faced from the pandemic is on their mission. It involves three parts; serve a hot and nutritious meal, provide a space for social interaction and have access to other local resources.
“We kind of lost the last two parts of our mission when COVID made it so we can’t allow people inside the building,” Carroll explained.
Carroll speculates that the drop in their average is because the socialization aspect has been lost. Nearly 20 regular clients came to the soup kitchen for more than a meal but to engage with others.
Carroll explained that the organization averaged 89 people a day, pre-COVID-19 but no longer have a definite average. Her best guess since the COVID-19 pandemic began is 75 people per day.
“We have days that are in the 50’s but other days we have 113,” Carroll said. “We still haven’t figured out exactly what our average is.”
That doesn’t mean that there has only been a decrease though. Carroll mentioned that there have been new clients they have never met before. She believes that COVID has created a need for some that didn’t need the organization before.
Laramie Soup Kitchen hasn’t made any major changes to what they offer but had to alter how they deliver meals to people.
“We did have to go to a serve method since we don’t allow anyone in the building,” Carroll explained. “People come into line, they fill out an order form then our server brings them their food out to the door.”
The organization is hoping to get back to normal before the weather gets cold again, but for now they are content with how they must do things.
Feeding Laramie Valley, another local food organization has also faced new challenges with COVID-19. The organization has been prominent in mentoring Laramie residents in creating and maintaining backyard gardens.
“In the past we’ve always done our Kids Out to Lunch program as a congregate meal situation,” Feeding Laramie Valley Founder, Gayle Woodsum said in an interview. “We’re now doing that as a drive up but we’re still doing our activities just accommodating social distancing rules.”
Woodsum and her team are working hard to find ways to keep the community connected, such as activities around the park. Specifically including children, they have discussed an obstacle course that follows social distancing guidelines but lets kids still interact with one another.
She emphasizes how proud she is of her team and their ability to “pivot and change on such short notice.”
Current workers for the organization made several programs that made it easier for new volunteers to get involved and understand what is going on. The organization is still taking volunteers now that produce needs collected and distributed.
Woodsum says that even though no one knows what the “forever looks like it makes us think about the impacts that are going to keep coming.”
