The charity that runs a Nanaimo, B.C., community soup kitchen has been locked out by its landlord over rent arrears — despite it having receipts it says shows the rent has been paid.
Stone Soup kitchen, which is run by the Wisteria Community Association in the Vancouver Island city, is located on the city’s Fitzwilliam Street in the Old Quarter and serves almost 200 people.
The operators of the soup kitchen say at least $50,000 worth of food and materials were locked away by their property management company, NAI Commercial, on Oct. 18, and they’re scrambling to set up alternatives as the weather gets colder.
Wisteria says they were just a week away from opening up their new dining room, which would allow those on the streets a place to warm up overnight, something they say NAI told them to do as a requirement to continue operating. Now, those plans are in jeopardy.
The operators of Stone Soup were locked out of their kitchen on Oct. 18, and say they have major concerns as the weather gets colder. (Claire Palmer/CBC)
“How are we supposed to feed the homeless when our facilities are suddenly locked and we can’t even access the food that we had there?” said John Boyes, Wisteria’s vice-president.
Boyes says he doesn’t know why the kitchen’s landlords would have wanted them out but suspects it’s because they could rent out the location for far more than what the charity is paying.
The Stone Soup kitchen has been at the Fitzwilliam Street location in Nanaimo’s Old Quarter for a few years. (Claire Palmer/CBC)
Wisteria showed CBC News receipts that indicated the non-profit had paid rent until Nov. 1.
The charity’s vice-president said it had previously been managed by a different property company, but NAI came into the picture a year and a half ago — with things having been “chaotic” since then.
“I work a lot, and when I’m not working, I give whatever time I can to the Stone Soup project, and suddenly, we just can’t do what we need to do,” Boyes said.
NAI didn’t respond to a request for comment from CBC News before deadline.
‘Gong show’
Doug Hiltz, a director of the Wisteria Community Association, says the charity’s founders started serving food out of their backyards and cupboards many years ago before they were formally able to launch the soup kitchen in December 2022.
He says that Stone Soup’s kitchen took more than $100,000 in community donations to set up, with granite donated from a local company.
“What really upsets me about this whole gong show is how they had the audacity to shut down the only soup kitchen in Nanaimo right before Christmas when people need the place to go the most,” he said.
“A lot of these people are on the street. They don’t have any family, so that’s their family now, is all the people on the street.”
John Boyes, left, and Doug Hiltz, right, provided CBC News receipts they said showed the charity had paid its rent until Nov. 1. (Claire Palmer/CBC)
Now, Wisteria faces problems getting volunteers together without a physical location and a schedule to stick to.
The MGM Restaurant, which is located a little over a kilometre away, has stepped in to allow the charity to run some nightly soup and sandwich mealtime services from its van.
Wisteria says they’re still aiming to do a Boxing Day meal service for Nanaimo’s unhoused population as the non-profit searches for a new permanent location.
“We will not go back into that same kitchen. We will not even deal with that agency again because … if they locked us out once, there’s no guarantee they’re not going to come in and do it again,” Hiltz said.