BALTIMORE — For almost a decade, Govans Presbyterian Church has been providing community meals each week with the help of volunteers from the community.
WATCH: Baltimore church soup kitchen faces closure despite volunteer petition
"When I came here, and I was helping at the soup kitchen, I realised these are people just like me. These are people that have their own stories that deserve to be told, these are people that deserve to be fed, listened to, to show that someone is out there listening to them, caring about them," says Kenneth Bungaslo.
Now there are plans to change the way the church is serving the community, and it has announced the Soul Kitchen will be closing soon.
So a group of volunteers created a petition.
"When I first found out Soul Kitchen was going to be gone, I was in shock. It didn't make sense to me were shutting down a soup kitchen in the coldest time of the year. This is the time when people need warm meals, and they need to know that they are cared about," says Chloe Kovac.
Interim Pastor, Reverend Doctor Ron Hankins, says he supports the fact that volunteers are speaking out and are passionate about serving the community.
"We hear them loud and clear, and we take their concerns seriously and again I appreciate their advocacy," Hankins said.
But he says closing Soul Kitchen is just a transition to the church opening up a community fridge on its campus.
A fridge, the pastor says, is open 24/7 and is welcome to all in the community.
But the volunteers say the fridge is not enough.
"There is truly a difference between a warm freshly cooked meal that's right out of the kitchen versus something that is cold a lot of the people that we serve don't have means to heat up anything so they aren't able to take a cold meal from the fridge and then go put it in the microwave or do anything like that so its really limiting who is able to come eat from the fridge," says Emma Hester.
Although the volunteers say keeping the Soul Kitchen open is better for the community, the church has been working on ways to help with the sustainability of food since the volunteers are not always available, and the food is only given out once a week.
Hankins says if the church can find a way to have both the community fridge and reopen the Soul Kitchen, it will do so.
"Were looking to move forward and give even greater access to the community by feeding those that are impacted by food injustice and we want to continue to try to broaden our current approach in a way that is sustainable in a way that is accessible to those that really need the assistance," Hankins said.
As of now, the Soul Kitchen is scheduled to close on December 31st, but volunteers say they are not giving up on trying to keep those doors open.
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