Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

KAMLOOPS UNITED CHURCH

PIT Stop still feeding the city’s vulnerable amid COVID-19 crisis

Mar 16, 2020 | 5:21 PM

KAMLOOPS — The PIT Stop program provides meals for people in Kamloops who might not have any access to any other food thought the day. Despite the COVID-19 situation, they wanted to continue feeding the vulnerable population in Kamloops. However, they knew they needed to change how they delivered those meals.

Sunday afternoon and the kitchen at the Kamloops United Church is a flurry of activity. Dozens of volunteers spend the afternoon cooking, packaging food, and serving meals. Last week, it was the Kamloops chapter of the 100 Women Who Care, a group of women focused on philanthropy. The group meets four times per year, and each member is asked to contribute $100 per meeting. Those funds are then distributed to a community group in need — in this case, PIT Stop,

“PIT Stop was one of the charities we gave money to about two meetings ago,” group co-founder Maryanne Bowers explained.

However, in light of the COVID-19 crisis, gathering all the PIT Stop clients in the church wasn’t an option — so Bowers and program coordinator Rick Windjack made a plan to make sure those folks got fed no matter what.

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“We thought that the best way to do that was to keep everyone safe, not only our guests, but our volunteers, and have a takeaway meal,” Bowers said.

“By doing that, we made we sure we continued the PIT Stop afternoon,” Windjack said. “We just did it a little bit differently.”

Volunteers packed bags with the usual PIT Stop meal supplies — cutlery, salad, fruit, snacks, and dessert, as well as a heaping helping of hearty chicken stew. Clients then lined up outside, where Rick and other volunteers served them before they went on their way to eat.

“We have fed 200 hungry people this afternoon, and it worked flawlessly. It was just a matter of having them line up instead of coming in the building,” Windjack explained. “There was no pushback; it was no surprise to a lot of them that we had to do this. It appears that we’ll have to do this for at least a few more weeks, depending on how this transpires.”

While more restrictions continue to be put into effect to help stop the spread of COVID-19, Bowers believes those who need the most help in our city must not get left behind.

“Our most vulnerable people, they need our help. They can’t get over this on their own.” Bowers said. “If we can come together as a community and show that we still have compassion and caring for them, I think that goes a long way.”