SCRANTON, Pa. — The St. Francis of Assisi Kitchen served nearly 10,000 meals last month and is on track to increase that number in November. "We offer a meal to anyone who comes through our doors. We don't discriminate. Anyone is welcome to come in and get a hot meal whenever they want," Head Chef Selena Gonzalez said.
Head Chef Selena Gonzalez and her team of volunteers will prepare at least 20 turkeys and all the trimmings for Thanksgiving.
"We're going to give them an entire meal. We're not going to shortcut it at all. We want everyone to feel like they're at home," Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez says usually by this time of year they have an influx of donations already. That's not the case right now.
"We've seen it's a lot lighter this year, so it would help us tremendously if we were to get those donations back on track and get our kitchen functioning the way it's used to," Gonzalez said.
The food pantry at St. Francis is in the same boat.
"I've had to reduce the amount of items that each family can have in order to make sure everyone gets something and that's not something that we really prefer to do," Food Pantry Operations Manager Adam Lynch said.
Manager Adam Lynch tells Newswatch 16 supply is not meeting demand.
"We're in desperate need of any and all shelf-stable items, cereal, anything you can think of. As long as they're in date and not expired we will gladly accept them," Lynch said.
Both the kitchen and food pantry are looking for donations and volunteers. The St. Francis of Assisi clothing store is in need of men's items such as jeans, workwear, boots and sneakers.
You can contact St. Francis of Assisi in Lackawanna County at 570-342-5556.