Stone Soup Kitchen Ministries

  Stone Soup Kitchen opens at 4 pm on Friday evenings, located at Shepherd of the Valley Church on Washington Street in Ayer. Please park in the Newton Street lot and walk up to the first blue door on Washington Street. Dinner is open to ANYone who wants a good hot meal and some company...no need to bring anything but yourself unless you want to! From 4 to 5, we are open for those who want to get together and socialize in the dining room. The potluck dinner is available from 5 to 5:30 followed by dessert and our open support group, which runs from 5:30 to 6, if you'd like to stay for it after dinner. This week, the potluck will be tacos with all the sides, dessert, juice, and some extra snacks to take home for the weekend. Our food pantry is open every Saturday morning from 10 to noon, same location. Come to the parking lot on Cambridge Street and follow the arrows. If you need food, or KNOW someone who needs food...please come pick some up. Email any questions to ston...

The entire team that is responsible for managing the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which supports approximately 6.2 million people across the U.S. in paying their heating and cooling bills, has been fired.   It just keeps getting better and better.  At Stone Soup Kitchen, we have many friends who have received help from LIHEAP from time to time.  One person in particular, I'll call him George, came to us for help with food for his family, and said that he was behind on his utility bills because of his wife's illness.  Some of you may know that even if you have health insurance, it doesn't pay for everything, and if you are also an hourly worker... well, you can see how this situation could snowball.  No income from your ill spouse, no income from you as you take time off for their medical needs, bills pile up -- rent, electric, gas or oil, medical costs -- and then there is this pesky need for food several times a day.   We ...

  Sitting here at my desk to write this letter today, I glanced out the window and can't even see the house next door to us through the fog that's settled in our wooded back yard. Normally this time of year, still being part of “stick season,” it's easy to see our neighbors, but not today! It's slowly lifting as I sit here, but it strikes me that I have a choice: Is it gloomy or beautiful? Which should I focus on? I am not an unrelenting Pollyanna by any means (those who know me will attest to that), so I have found it necessary these days to grab onto any positive turn of events that I can in order to keep going. I am sorry to have to start with the “gloomy” news today so that we can then move on to the practical matter of what some of our supporters are doing about it. Hopefully you will find much of that to be very positive...and probably even beautiful 😊 Last week, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) made a third cut to food that our food banks were expe...

  Stone Soup Kitchen opens at 4 pm on Friday evenings, located at Shepherd of the Valley Church on Washington Street in Ayer.  Please park in the Newton Street lot and walk up to the first blue door on Washington Street. Dinner is open to ANYone who wants a good hot meal and some company...no need to bring anything but yourself unless you want to! From 4 to 5, we are open for those who want to get together and socialize in the dining room. The potluck dinner is available from 5 to 5:30 followed by dessert and our open support group, which runs from 5:30 to 6, if you'd like to stay for it after dinner. This week, the potluck will be pork and noodles, with sides, dessert, juice, and some extra snacks to take home for the weekend. Our food pantry is open every Saturday morning from 10 to noon, same location. Come to the parking lot on Cambridge Street and follow the arrows. If you need food, or KNOW someone who needs food...please come pick some up. Email any questio...

Lin and Vinny will be hosting a free hot cocoa and glitter tattoo stand in the Ayer Shop 'n Save parking lot from 10 to noon on Saturday March 29, 2025!!  Come and hang out, and enjoy a cuppa! 

  Happy Spring everyone! I know that it doesn't yet fully look like Spring out there, but there are some early signs, including some brand new winter irises (Iris Reticulate) that I planted last fall. A picture is attached...it's not great because the wind just wouldn't quit, but at least you can see the pretty pattern on the petal. They're really small, about 6 to 8 inches tall. And they make me happy. Other things that make us extremely happy... A fun event which is coming up soon is Lin and Vinny M's famous hot cocoa stand at the Ayer Shop 'n Save parking lot. Free hot cocoa and glitter tattoos for all, from 10 to noon on Saturday March 29th . Lin will have a list of food items that we are collecting, but there is NO OBLIGATION to buy or donate anything. Just come and have some cocoa, and hang out with some pretty cool kids! We had a great visit from our friends at National Grid, who joined the shopping trip for the migrant shelter's communal ki...

  Stone Soup Kitchen opens at 4 pm on Friday evenings, located at Shepherd of the Valley Church on Washington Street in Ayer (the sign says Federated Church). Please park in the Newton Street lot and walk up to the first blue door on Washington Street. Dinner is open to ANYone who wants a good hot meal and some company...no need to bring anything but yourself unless you want to! From 4 to 5, we are open for those who want to get together and socialize in the dining room. The potluck dinner is available from 5 to 5:30 followed by dessert and our open support group, which runs from 5:30 to 6, if you'd like to stay for it after dinner. This week, the potluck will be cheeseburger-sausage bake, with sides, dessert, juice, and some extra snacks to take home for the weekend. Our food pantry is open every Saturday morning from 10 to noon, same location. Come to the parking lot on Cambridge Street and follow the arrows. If you need food, or KNOW someone who needs food...please ...