CLAREMONT — The Claremont Soup Kitchen has stopped providing lunch and cut back on staff hours in an effort to return to stable financial footing — at a time when the nonprofit is serving more people in Sullivan County than ever before.
“We’re trying to save on overhead costs here because we’re in a financial crisis,” said Angela Bark, who started in her role as executive director in February and is the nonprofit’s only full-time employee. “We had to do these cuts to bring things back afloat and try to get a little bit ahead.”
The soup kitchen’s leaders opted to cut lunch in November because it drew the fewest people of the three meals the soup kitchen offers. They are still serving breakfast Monday through Friday and dinner seven days a week. People who attend breakfast can request to-go meals for lunch and come back again for dinner to make up for the loss of the sit-down lunch meal.
“That seemed to be the best decision for us,” Claremont Soup Kitchen board vice president Tausha Shute said.
The board hopes to resume lunch, which was served Monday through Friday, once the organization has built up its reserves, Shute said.
She emphasized that the soup kitchen is not in debt, but is having trouble keeping up with expenses.
The soup kitchen’s monthly operating costs are around $40,000, depending on the time of year. Ideally, it would have enough cash on hand to cover three months of operations just in case, she said.
“We were getting below that and that’s not a comfortable place to be,” said Shute, who serves as vice president of retail services at Claremont Savings Bank.
The nonprofit, located at 53 Central St., faced some unexpected costs this year: Its air conditioning system broke in July and cost more than $20,000 to repair, Shute said. They also had to repair a van and heating costs went up.
The organization also saw revenues decline. Some grant funding went away and private donations also decreased, which Shute attributed to economic uncertainty.
“It’s been a challenging year to say the least,” Shute said.
While facing its own challenges, the organization has tried to meet rising needs in the community. Currently, 480 family units receive pantry staples through its monthly food box program. They had around 100 new requests for assistance during a two-month period this fall, when they would typically see around 20 during a similar time frame in previous years, Bark said. They served 17,500 meals to children in July and August — another high.
“We are hitting a number of records in everything this year,” Shute said.
While Bark attributed some of the growth to the pause in Supplement Nutritional Assistance Program during the 43-day government shutdown, she said that numbers had been rising throughout the year.
“We’re seeing more people coming in and utilizing what we have out just because the cost of groceries are more expensive,” Bark said.
Bark has done her best to bargain shop for food and solicit more donations. Bark has to purchase eggs and milk that they can’t consistently get from donations to use in the community meals staff prepare.
The soup kitchen regularly gets donations from Hannaford and Walmart in Claremont, as well as Willing Hands, a Norwich-based nonprofit organization. It also purchases food from the New Hampshire Food Bank.
Help for the Claremont Soup Kitchen is on the way: An anonymous donor recently contributed $100,000. Additional private donations have slowly trickled in, which tends to happen toward the end of the calendar year, Shute said. Bark and board members have been focused on fundraising and applying for grants.
The organization does not have a set fundraising goal, beyond building up three months of operating expenses, Shute added in a follow-up email.
“Our goal is to get back to normal operations as soon as possible, and that is our focus,” Shute wrote.
The soup kitchen also is planning to request funding from the Claremont City Council in 2026 for the second year in a row, which Mayor Dale Girard has encouraged the board to do. The council granted them $10,000 for the current fiscal year.
Girard said he appreciated the steps the board has taken to stabilize the organization.
“They saw an issue coming so they tried to make sure it wasn’t a long-term impact on their organization,” he said. “It shows that they have a great understanding of the needs of the community, but they also have a great understanding of how to keep things financially feasible.”
Note: The Claremont Soup Kitchen serves breakfast from 9 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday and dinner from 5 to 6 p.m. seven days a week. The soup kitchen also operates a food pantry from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday. Visit https://claremontsoupkitchen.wordpress.com/ for more information.