Manna Meal will move its food preparation operations to the former Shape Shop location in Charleston, W.Va. It is the capital city’s only soup kitchen. (Lori Kersey | West Virginia Watch)
After initially planning to take its kitchen operations completely mobile on three food trucks, Charleston’s only soup kitchen has reached an agreement with a nonprofit that will allow it to rent space from the agency on the city’s West Side.
Manna Meal, which has been housed at St. John’s Episcopal Church on Charleston’s East End in West Virginia since its inception, will do its food preparation and store food and equipment at the former Shape Shop Cafe building at 706 Central Ave. The former cafe closed in November after nearly 50 years in business. Owner Millie Snyder donated the restaurant space to West Virginia Health Right, a free and charitable clinic based in Charleston that serves patients in 34 counties, according to a news release from the organizations.
Manna Meal’s lease with the church where it began in 1976 ended Dec. 31, 2024. The organization last year purchased two additional food trucks, bringing the fleet to three, with the anticipation that it would do all its food preparation from two trucks and use the third for a mobile food pantry while continuing to serve meals from the former Garnett Career Center.
Manna Meal and Health Right have partnered on testing and vaccination efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic and on HIV and hepatitis C testing, the organization’s leaders said.
“It seemed like a perfect way to help them and the community when Millie granted us this wonderful gift with the Shape Shop,” Health Right CEO Angie Settle wrote in a text message to West Virginia Watch. “They now have this kitchen to prep their food and they have a fleet of trucks and routes in places where they can serve those in need.”
Manna Meal CEO Amy Wolfe said having the permanent location will make it easier on the organization to prepare food and will allow the soup kitchen to expand its footprint.
Once the organization gets on its feet in the new space, Wolfe said, it plans to resume serving breakfast on the West Side, something it did during an extended gas outage there in late 2023.
“Having the two food trucks that are fully able to cook, we can take them to some of more underserved places, not just in the city of Charleston, but in the county,” Wolfe said. “We get a lot of calls from Sissonville, Cabin Creek, Campbells Creek. So we want to sort of make ourselves at home at the Shape Shop, and then look at really serving some of those areas as well.”
Indoor meals will continue to be served at the former Garnet Career Center, where it’s been for more than a year after it stopped serving meals at St. Johns following two incidents involving clients of the soup kitchen. The Shape Shop space will not be used for meal distribution.
Wolfe added that she will look for additional sources of funding to continue to support renting the space at Garnet, but that renting both spaces would be tough.
“The truth of the matter is, we’re now putting out a lot of money in rent that we were not before, and so it’s really hard to find funding for stuff like that,” Wolfe said. “I’m going to put forth a lot of effort into trying to raise the funds for that because indoor dining, we fully believe in. We believe everyone should have a safe space. It offers a sense of community. But it’s also, how long can we sustain that without getting help?”
Wolfe said the soup kitchen will make minor adjustments at the kitchen at the suggestions of the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department.
“We’re working on doing that [and] a nice little fresh coat of paint, and we’re going to be up and running,” Wolfe said. “They’re going to hopefully come out to approve it the middle of next week, we’re hoping.”
She added that a snow storm in the forecast early next week may require changing the schedule.
“I’m incredibly grateful for [Health Right CEO] Angie [Settle] and the board of Health Right to work with us,” Wolfe said. “We’ve always worked very well with them. Think the world of them.”
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