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Mobile Soup Kitchen Vandalized

COAL TOWNSHIP — A mobile soup kitchen in Northumberland County was vandalized this week. It’s the third time it’s happened in the past couple ...
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COAL TOWNSHIP -- A mobile soup kitchen in Northumberland County was vandalized this week. It's the third time it's happened in the past couple of months.

Volunteers at God's Chuckwagon near Shamokin were busy preparing the meal they would serve later on -- soup and cabbage. It's what James and Janet Bowers have done for the past 10 years.

"We're feeding people who come to the window and say this is the only meal I get all week," James said.

Two years ago, God's Chuckwagon got a school bus. It is what they call their mobile kitchen. Back then, we caught up with them one day in Shamokin.

But earlier this week, the Bowers noticed a dent on the passenger side of the bus.

"To see damage done to the bus and it's costing money that we could feed people with, it hurts," Janet said.

In recent months this bus was damaged three times. The owners say besides the damage to the side of the bus, a cross was removed from the front of the bus and a light was torn off.

"The money we spend fixing up what they vandalized is taking away from us feeding the people who need the meals," James said.

The Bowers say they serve food to more than 700 people throughout the coal region each week. Sometimes God's Chuckwagon serves the Shamokin Coal Township Senior Action Center.

"They help anybody. Never refuse anybody. I'm surprised that this even happened," Mary Shields said.

"I didn't think anybody would do that to a guy who is so nice to everybody. It really is sad," Joyce Thomas said.

The Bowers say they've already spent a couple hundred dollars to fix some of the vandalism to their bus. They say that's money that could have been used to fill up the bus with two weeks worth of gas.

"We just want to pray for them and hope that, you know, they find other things to do than to vandalize our bus," Janet said.

Coal Township police are investigating the vandalism but say they have no suspects.

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