WALTHAM, Mass. — A community-based shelter in Waltham is being given two months to relocate after receiving word their facility of nearly 20 years is undergoing a renovation to keep up with an evolving real estate market.
Middlesex Human Service Agency (MHSA) announced on Wednesday they’re seeking a new location for its Bristol Lodge soup kitchen and weekly food pantry, which had been operating in the basement of Immanuel United Methodist Church on Moody Street.
“We’ve been at our location for 18 years now and have had fabulous partners there,” CEO Bob Mills told Boston 25 News. “Unfortunately with the real estate market evolving they have to have some other uses for the space we’ve been in.”
Mills said the soup kitchen has been given a hard deadline to move out by October 15.
“This is something we knew might become an eventuality,” he said.
The soup kitchen currently provides an average of 40 take-out meals a day for anyone in need. The food pantry serves approximately 80-100 people and families each week. MHSA has operated in downtown Waltham since the 1970s and receives thousands of clients daily.
The nonprofit has had to evolve its service model by pivoting to take-out only during the COVID-19 pandemic, a model Mills says has benefited them.
“We no longer need something like a full kitchen or a full dining area we just need enough room to be able to set up some food and have folks come pick it up,” he said. “Our hope would be to locate a new location somewhere along public transportation lines in Waltham so that folks would be able to get to us...that is our biggest requirement, the ease of access.”
Despite the deadlines, Mills is staying optimistic about finding a new place.
“I think we have a lot of options to explore...I think once the community in general finds out what the situation is I expect a lot of folks to be looking for ways to try to help us so I’m not nervous at this point.”
For more information on how to help MHSA in their relocation efforts, you can visit their website here.
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