Stone Soup Kitchen Ministries

Good afternoon!  I got a slow start today, because we had a really big weekend which included a Board meeting (more on that next week!) and a presentation after the Sunday service at St Andrew's Episcopal Church here in Ayer.  I was so happy that many of our volunteers who attend St A's were willing to speak about their own experiences too.  But let me back up a little bit first!   Some of you may have seen online that we had a visit last week from our friend Ed Gordon, representing the Harvard Lions Club.  He came to present us with a grant to support our very popular Coffee Bar, which runs at the same time as our pantry service each Saturday.  Here's the kicker: we asked them for enough to fund the CB for 20 weeks, but they decided to give us enough to fund the entire year!  That's 2 1/2 times what we asked for!  We are so grateful for their generosity to our community.  There's a picture attached in case you missed it online. ...

  Stone Soup Kitchen opens at 4 pm on Friday evenings, located in 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 our potluck features beef stroganoff, various sides, dessert, juice, coffee, 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 que...

  We had a visit from our friend Ed Gordon today at the pantry. He came to present us with a wonderful grant from the Harvard Lions Club to support our (extremely!) popular Coffee Bar. Thank you so much to all of them! ❤️   

  Many thanks to the Ayer/Shirley Daisy Troop 63239 who donated boxes and boxes of Girl Scout cookies for us to give away at our next Saturday pantry session! Everyone loves a good Girl Scout cookie 💖

  Good morning everyone! My phone tells me that it's supposed to reach 60 today, but I'm having some serious doubts about that. That's ok though...I have so many things to tell you about today, my files are bursting out even if the flowers aren't exactly there yet. Last week, along with many of my friends at St Andrew's Episcopal Church in Ayer, I learned about a college behind bars program. The specific program mentioned was through Tufts University, but many other colleges offer classes as well. Anyway, Tufts partners with an organization called Partakers, and volunteers there join teams to become mentors. These are not so much academic mentors as they are friendships and encouragers: people who will get to know an incarcerated person and encourage them on a monthly basis. I think it's an amazing program, and I wanted to share the info with you in case you find it intriguing: https://www.partakers.org/ Ken Burns, on PBS, did a documentary on the ...

  Stone Soup Kitchen opens at 4 pm on Friday evenings, located in 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 our potluck features sweet and sour pork, various sides, dessert, juice, coffee, 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 q...

Good morning everyone...yawn, stretch, try to get back on track...stoopid time change! I love having more light in the evening, but my body just hates the time change. Anyway, I hope you all had a good weekend and are looking forward to some milder weather this week! At SSK, we are moving ahead with our plans to form more partnerships in order to serve more people. This week and next, we have several meetings with organizations that also have the space and the desire to sponsor workshops, classes, meet-ups, and the like. Many of you know that in the past we have held these types of meetings in the building where we were located. That was fine, but we tended to mostly only see the same people that we were already reaching. We would like to help even more of our community to expand their relationships across the typical divides that can keep people from socializing (and help with their food needs, if necessary), so we are continuing to look for two things: Like-minded businesse...