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Amid rising costs and fewer donations, Windsor’s Downtown Mission is cutting back on its community meal service to just one per day.
“It’s not just about the meals,” said executive director Rukshini Ponniah-Goulin. “It’s about the number of people who are at this location that we need to monitor.
“We need to provide the space for the people who need to be here.”
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As of July 1, Ponniah-Goulin said, the mission will provide one community meal only, at noon, which will be available to any person who is without food and has no other place to find a meal.
However, people who are sheltering at the mission through its sanctuary program will continue to receive breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
“It’s very difficult to keep up with these rising costs of food and just operations in general,” Ponniah-Goulin said. “Our donations in our community have been amazing, but it just can’t keep up.”
According to the mission’s 2023 annual report, the kitchen budget was set at $375,000 but actual expenses reached $495,373. The budget for food this year is set at $422,183.
“It’s a hard set of circumstances that has led us to take this unprecedented course of action,” Ponniah-Goulin said.
“For almost eight years we have proudly served three meals to the hungry among us, but we have no other choice until we can find additional sources of revenue and gifts-in-kind.”
Ponniah-Goulin told the Windsor Star that the mission sees up to 150 people daily.
Although this isn’t the highest number of individuals they’ve ever seen, the level of support these people require is at an all-time-high, said Ponniah-Goulin. About 40 people visit the mission for a daily meal throughout the week.
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