- QUOLA Soup Kitchen once served nearly 200 neighbors daily, but has recently been limiting operations due to building issues.
- Hurricane Helene caused severe damage to the building.
- Watch the video to hear from neighbors about the need for the kitchen to remain open.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
The QUOLA Soup Kitchen is a haven for nearly 200 neighbors daily. But now, it needs help to remain open.
Led by the Quality of Life Association, QUOLA quickly grew into a vital resource—serving lunch to nearly 1,000 neighbors a week.
But the last few weeks, its doors have opened inconsistently. No meals were served this Monday or Tuesday. Volunteers scraped together enough this Wednesday to serve a small crowd.
Volunteer James Dunleavy tells me the building was badly damaged during Hurricane Helene, as you can see the flickering lights during our interview.
There's also no functioning kitchen, due to health restrictions, forcing volunteers to rely on outside help to get meals ready.
"I think once we could get the building squared away and get some lights and back on and the air conditioner working and and everything and get a decent kitchen in here… we would be able to make our food here and be able to serve more people," said Dunleavy.
Raji Lightner is both a volunteer and someone who sometimes goes to QUOLA for meals. He says the need has skyrocketed since the storm and other weather events.
"The cold weather shelter when everything started changing, you know. So after that, after that storm and the cold weather shelter. It dropped off considerably," said Lightner.
Now, he's watching more people go without.
"I've, I've noticed a lot of people not eating, especially people that live on this side of town, they, they haven't been eating them past couple of days," said Lightner. "So I've been noticing like I do a lot of community outreach. So I've been noticing a lot of people that normally eat here. Up and down the street trying to find ways to eat."
Some good news: QUOLA is working on getting repairs underway and plans on remaining open to full capacity in the near future.
In Valdosta, I'm Malia Thomas, reporting for ABC27.
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