Albany church’s soup kitchen ends operations after more than 40 years

ALBANY – After four decades, the St. Clare’s Soup Kitchen has closed its doors, but the purchaser of the south Albany facility has plans to continue a food outreach program.

Under the direction of Franciscan sisters, St. Clare’s Soup Kitchen opened and grew into a mission that has inspired other food ministries in Albany. It formed on the site of what is known as the old church at 2005 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. 

St. Teresa’s founded St. Clare’s church in 1950 for the military and people on the south side of town, Alma Goodwin, a St. Teresa’s parishioner and long-time soup kitchen volunteer, said.

The soup kitchen began in the 1970s with a group of Franciscan sisters cooking two pots of soup in their tiny apartment attached to the church. It grew into a hot meal people relied on three days a week. 

The last sister to serve, Maura Malloy, manned the door to make sure each guest had a seat at church tables.

The soup kitchen had to switch to bagged lunches during the COVID-19 pandemic. But its doors were kept open throughout COVID, Goodwin said. Each lunch bag had two sandwiches, a bag of chips, a snack treat, and volunteers were trained to top it off with two lollipops. 

“Handed them a little something sweet,” Goodwin said.

St. Clare’s received essential food donations from Helping Hands, which distributes basic food items like milk, juice and fresh fruit that were unused items from the Dougherty County School System. These fresh, nutritious foods were “a treat for the people,” she said. 

The volunteers at the soup kitchen will be recognized, along with other volunteers at St. Teresa’s, during a Thursday celebration at the church’s parish hall. The event also will mark the end of the food ministry.