Wisteria Community Association’s Stone Soup Kitchen is searching for a new home.
The Nanaimo kitchen was in operation, producing meals for people on the street, at 308 Fitzwilliam St. since December 2022 and was in the process of building a social centre with a dining room next door, but the non-profit has now been evicted.
Tanya Hiltz, Wisteria Community Association president, and her husband, Doug, had hoped to have the social centre operating in time for the winter season. Plans called for the centre to be open overnight from 5:30 p.m. to 7 a.m. with capacity for up to 50 people, who could stay indoors to eat, warm up and socialize for up to two hours.
However, while Doug was doing renovation work on Oct. 18 to convert the former storefront into the social centre, a locksmith came by to change the locks on the doors of both the kitchen and the dining room. Doug said his understanding was that a contractor hadn’t been paid in full for work done in the kitchen.
“From what I understood, the contractors were paid, but I guess not all of them were paid off in full because some of them were doing the work at cost, some of them were doing it for free, so I guess this one, Tanya hadn’t paid off in full, so they put a lien on the kitchen,” Doug said.
His understanding was that the outstanding payment would be covered by the end of October and that the contractor was satisfied with the arrangement, but suggested there was poor communication between the parties involved.
Marianne Stolz, president and managing broker for NAI Commercial, Central Vancouver Island, said the company is bound to act in the best interests of the owners of the properties it manages.
“It’s a contract matter between landlord and tenant, so I can’t speak to particulars,” she said. “We wish things were different. We recognize [that] and we’re trying to make it as accommodating as possible, but as a landlord we have certain parameters as well … We do our best to be good supportive community citizens, and as property managers, we do the bidding of the landlord and the owners.”
Tanya Hiltz said Stone Soup currently prepares about 160 meals daily and, despite the loss of its kitchen, its volunteers have continued to prepare and distribute meals while the association tries to re-locate with help from Helen Samaroo, owner of MGM Restaurant, who prepares a fresh batch of soup each day.
“It’s really working out great … We get the produce and give it to her right away,” Hiltz said. “Whatever she gets, she makes, which is awesome because they never know what they’re getting.”
The distributed meals consist of soup, a sandwich and dessert.
“I just finished a pot of soup for them, actually, “ Samaroo said on Friday, Nov. 8. “Cooking is our passion, so I’ll not hesitate to help out.”
Tanya said she hopes to recover the kitchen equipment from the Fitzwilliam Street location so it can be used once a new Stone Soup location is found.
The organization has supplied free meals to people living on the streets since 2015.
“Stone Soup’s here to stay,” Tanya said. “I’m too stubborn. COVID tried to take me out once. It can try me again. It’s not taking me away from Stone Soup.”
