The Trenton Times published the following article on April 29, 2013. To read the full article, click here.

Trenton Area Soup Kitchen: Three decades of service feeding the hungry

By Mark Syp/For The Times 
on April 29, 2013 at 7:00 AM, updated April 29, 2013 at 10:09 AM

TRENTON — On a late morning at the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, lunch was being served and the tables in the dining room were quickly filling up. The next wave of patrons lined up, enjoying the relaxed atmosphere, chatting with friends and listening to jaunty jazz music playing from speakers overhead.

Michelle Miller, who spends time at TASK as both a patron and a volunteer, was among those helping to serve food. The soup kitchen, she said, is vital to the Trenton community.

“If anything ever happened to the soup kitchen it would be the end of the world for most people here, especially the homeless people,” she said without hesitation.

TASK is marking more than 30 years since a sharp recession drove a group of church and social service leaders to find a space at the First United Methodist Church on Perry Street. Under its first director, Alice Parker, the soup kitchen opened in 1982 with the mission of serving the city’s less fortunate.

In 1991, with help from Mercer County and numerous donors, TASK raised $600,000 and built a 6,000-square-foot home on land on Escher Street leased from the city for $1 a year, according to a history written by the organization. In 2003, TASK helped create the South Trenton South Kitchen, and over the years expanded its mission to encompass adult education, arts outreach and other programs.

“When they first come here we feed their belly,” executive director Dennis Micai said. “The next time they come, we start to feed their mind. By the end, we’re working on the whole person.”

The organization serves as one of the hubs of the support system for those in greatest need in Trenton and the region, along with the Rescue Mission, the Salvation Army, Homefront and other dedicated groups.

“They provide stability,” said former Trenton Mayor Douglas Palmer. “It’s unfortunate that you need a soup kitchen, but it’s fortunate that you have one that is as well-run and as respectful of its clients as the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen.”

Working but hungry

TASK serves lunch on weekdays and dinner Monday through Thursday. The mid-day meal, running from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., is the bigger of the two and is usually a hot meal. Micai noted that in order to accommodate diners who have to get back to their jobs, the soup kitchen offers a “workers pass” that lets them speed through the line. The evening meal tends to be lighter fare and runs from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.

By Micai’s estimation, among its various locations, TASK serves about 3,750 meals a week, with some 75 volunteers helping out each day. He said that a bit less than half of the patrons are homeless and that the majority of them are low-income residents.

“About 70 percent of the patrons have some form of income. They just don’t have enough,” Micai said.

Micai said that more than 60 percent of TASK’s funding comes from individual donations, with only 3 percent coming from the government. The nonprofit’s independence means there are no limitations on who TASK can serve, he said.

“Our service is unconditional. Anybody who wants a meal can come and have a meal,” he said.

Lifelong Trenton resident Rickey Fox stood in line for food, holding his orange ticket and talking with some friends.

Fox, who has been coming to TASK for the last five years, said he splits his time between looking for employment and volunteering at a youth basketball program affiliated with the Men for Hope organization. He said that he often brings several of the youths in his neighborhood to TASK to participate in youth-oriented activities.

When they first come here we feed their belly. The next time they come, we start to feed their mind. By the end, we’re working on the whole person.

In addition to getting something to eat, Fox was there that morning to use the computers. He said he liked the fact that TASK provided a quiet atmosphere where he could get paperwork done.

“It’s a nice place to rest your mind and really get your brain going,” he said.

Working to get ahead

Micai stressed that while TASK’s primary concern is serving meals to the hungry, the organization also offer several programs designed to help people improve themselves and begin to get their lives back on track.

Less than an hour earlier, the room that was now accommodating hundreds of diners had resembled a school library. Students in TASK’s adult education program sat at the tables, hunched over reams of papers as they worked with their tutors.

The program offers patrons the chance to work one-on-one with a tutor on skills ranging from basic literacy to preparation. Micai said that in the last 18 months, 35 students had earned their GED.

The students included Miller, who said she left school in the 11th grade to raise her daughter. The two of them were homeless and lived at the Rescue Mission of Trenton, she said.

Miller now lives in a one-bedroom apartment and her daughter has grown up and is serving in the Army. She said she realizes the importance of continuing her education, even now.

“If you’re going for jobs now, you’ve really got to have that GED in order to get employed,” she said. “They teach you what you got to know in order to take that test.”

Miller also participates in TASK’s Arts Outreach Program, the SHARE Project. She writes poetry and said that thanks to her positive experience with the program she was beginning to branch out into singing as well.

“I like songs that move your heart and keep your spirits up,” she said with pride in her voice.

TASK also has a visual arts program, nicknamed the A-Team. Participants in the A-Team have won numerous awards for their works, several of which decorate the halls of the dining room.

The various programs contribute to what Micai described as one of the soup kitchen’s broader goals — to serve as a safe and pleasant sanctuary from the streets.

“It’s a safe place. They treat everyone with dignity and respect,” Palmer said. “As mayor, it was a place that I always wanted to visit. Even though the people there may have been down on their luck, I always felt that they had hope.”