PORT HURON – Mid-City Nutrition is slowly getting closer to opening its new building.
The skeleton of the building has been completed, including a recently added giant soup can on top of the structure. However, the inside construction has been put on pause until the nonprofit receives its appliances. Executive Director Sara Jones said once those go in, then the epoxy flooring can be poured in, the indoor piping can be placed and the electrical can be completed. Then all that needs to be done is a health inspection.
“Once the appliances are in, things will start moving very quickly,” Jones said.
The appliances, like many of things involved in creating the new building, are coming to Mid-City Nutrition through a donor. Jones said the appliances are a unique situation where they are first being donated to a separate organization, who is then donating them to Mid-City Nutrition. When the appliances will be delivered is not yet known.
Mid-City Nutrition is currently housed in the basement of St. Martin Lutheran Church, located at 805 Chestnut St. Once its new building is completed, Mid-City Nutrition will move to 830 Griswold St.
The total cost of the new building is not yet known. However, Jones said the cost might be roughly $1 million.
Jones said the main reason Mid-City Nutrition wanted its own building was space. She said while the nonprofit loves its current space, they have outgrown it. They are not able to accommodate their large number of clients in the current dining area. On a typical day, Mid-City Nutrition serves between 150 and 250 lunches. They hand out a similar amount during dinner as well.
Additionally, Jones said the current storage areas are very full.
“Our storage areas are full to bursting, which is actually a great place to be for a soup kitchen,” Jones said. “But we need more space.”
Nigar Hussain has been volunteering at Mid-City Nutrition six days a week for many years. She said she’s looking forward to having clients be able to eat inside. She said the new building would help to accommodate the hundreds of meals Mid-City Nutrition makes for the community.
Kitchen manager Carol Baisley-Gonzolez said the new space will give Mid-City Nutrition’s cliental a better dining experience.
“I think it would make them more comfortable,” she said. “They’ll be able to come in and relax while they eat their meal.”
Jones said Mid-City Nutrition will be moving from about 1000 square feet of space to about 6,000 square feet. The new appliances are expected to be bigger as well to accommodate more food while cooking. The new building will also have a large dining room that will easily accommodate Mid-City Nutrition’s cliental.
The new building will also have two kitchens. Jones said the main kitchen will be used for cooking food for their cliental. The second kitchen can be used for multiple purposes including cooking classes, fundraising events and rental use.
Contact McKenna Golat at mgolat@gannett.com.
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