BY CASSIDEY KAVATHAS, NEWS EDITOR
After surviving the pandemic offering only take out meals, the Warming House has opened their dining hall again for eat in meals exactly 16 months since they closed.
This year, volunteers face the challenge of preparing take out meals as well as eat in meals.
“Our guests are now able to come inside the Warming House, get some coffee and a snack and talk with other guests while we finish preparing the day’s meal,” said Ryan Bauer, sophomore adolescence education and history double major
The Warming House is open to guests from 2:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. for all meals. Volunteers and coordinators go in at 1:45 p.m. to start preparing the meal.
“I love being able to cook for people and the quality of food we are able to produce. The coordinators and volunteers are always coming up with ways to make meals better,” said Elizabeth Egan, a sophomore journalism and mass communications major. “A lot of thought and care goes into what we make and you can tell, the guests notice.”
In 2019, the Warming House served a little under 6,000 eat in meals. In 2020, they served over 12,000 take out meals. Alice Miller-Nation, director of the Franciscan Center for Social Concern, projects that in 2021 the Warming House will serve around 8,000 eat in and take out meals. August and September already served over 600 meals. Volunteers serve roughly 40 home-cooked, warm meals to guests a day.
“The Warming House has such an inviting atmosphere. It is extremely hard not to like it. Everyone volunteering genuinely wants to help and be there for our guests,” said Bauer. “There are interactions between guests and volunteers that you won’t find anywhere else.”
The Warming House is more than their hot meals. Miller-Nation described the atmosphere in the dining room as a community center.
“Sometimes people just sit and visit with one another. In the past people would knit or clip coupons or just talk about the gossip of Olean,” said Miller-Nation. “It is more than just a soup kitchen. It’s a community center. There’s some people who come there, not that they have a lot but they come because of the community.”
Miller-Nation described the strong sense of community seen on campus as projected out into the local community through programs such as the Warming House.
“One thing the guests appreciate and that was missed last year is that volunteers sit down and spend time with the guests after the meal is served and have great conversations,” said Egan.
After volunteers serve the meal, they join guests in the dining hall for dinner. Miller-Nation compares the encounters at the Warming House to the story of Francis and the leper, where Francis went out of his way to minister to lepers, miles from his own town.
“Something happens when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, and allow ourselves to sort of touch the heart of another person, or touch the mind of another person,” said Miller-Nation. “What I love about the Warming House is that we’re really preparing our students to leave Bonaventure by teaching them how to encounter people who are very different than themselves.”
The Warming House strives to offer good community, good dignity and good nourishment every single day to their guests.
“The Warming House is one of those ways that we truly are outward facing,” said Miller-Nation. “It is as much about serving and feeding hungry people as it is giving our students a chance to practice their Franciscan hearts. So that they know who they are when they leave here.”
kavathcj20@bonavneture.edu
