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 feature grilled sausages along with 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...

  Good morning! It seems so early in the month for Memorial Day, and maybe especially since it's been cool. When I was a child in school, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, at least in Pennsylvania, classes ended the first week of June. Often, it was hot for that last week, and it was hard to pay attention to what we were supposed to be learning. We all wanted to go swimming! Well, it's a lovely day today, no matter what the temperature, and I hope we can all take some time to remember and appreciate the service of those service members who gave their lives for us. I have several friends from elementary and junior high who lost older siblings in the Vietnam War. It was hard for me to fully understand the impact on their families back then, especially before I had children of my own. Today and every day, I am sad but grateful that there have always been people who were willing to sacrifice themselves if necessary, for their brothers and sisters in combat and for th...

  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 feature a turkey dinner along with 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 ...

  Good morning to you all! What a lovely day, even with that brisk breeze! I'm looking forward to maybe being able to spend a bit of time on our porch later today. We had a beautiful weekend as well and were fortunate that the rain mostly held off on Saturday morning so that everyone could come and get their groceries. We have more friends coming on foot now that we're closer to the town center, and bad weather on a Saturday can be a problem. My thanks to Tina, Jane, Lin, Charlotte, and Brian, who took care of the pantry so that I could have a morning off. Since we have consistently seen more foot traffic, we decided to buy a couple of wire grocery carts. I found some that weren't too expensive but were still sturdy enough, and were easy to put together...always a bonus! We'll see how this goes: we've given out one to a guest who has no transportation and we have one in reserve. It's never too early to start thinking about summer activities! Thank ...

  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 feature at least three different choices of main dish, along with 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 f...

  Good morning! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, especially after the rain moved out on Sunday. It was a glorious day, and I hope that you all had a chance to enjoy some time outdoors. I was very outdoorsy yesterday...I sat on the porch and read! It was really lovely. We'll start with the good news! As of last Tuesday, the Boston Area Gleaners were 85% of the way to their spring fundraising goal! Thank you so much to any of you who donated to them. There are so many pantries and meal programs besides ours that they support each growing season, and as I've mentioned before, the excess that they send to us is shared with pantries even further west, thanks to our friends Alison and Rich who do the deliveries each week. Because of maintenance issues, EBT cards were not able to be used the last weekend of April. These are the cards that are used by SNAP (food stamp) participants to pay for their groceries. That may in part explain why we had such an extraordinarily lar...

  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 feature roasted chicken, various 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...

  Good morning to all of you, and happy May! What a beautiful weekend, with the gentle rain that we needed. I looked outside this morning, and the color has intensified since last week. Everywhere I look it's that gorgeous bright spring green that's extra special because it lasts for such a short time. Our friend Lyna T stopped by on Friday to help us look as beautiful as the landscape! Lyna comes and offers haircuts or trims to our friends during the social time before dinner. She is such a sweetie, helping us out after a long week of work when I know she must be tired. We also had an opportunity to visit with our friends at the Groton-Pepperell Rotary Club last week. They wanted to know about our new space at Shepherd of the Valley Church, and we discussed the things that make Stone Soup Kitchen unique and the increased need in our region. Personally, I am a great admirer of the work that Rotary International does, and I love their motto: Service Above Self. They were ve...

  We're not aiming for "pretty", but full shelves certainly "spark joy"! Your donations are always welcome. If you can't visit us during our open hours, there's a bin at Ayer Shop n' Save where non-perishable, IN-DATE food can be left. Please put a note in your bag with your name so that we know whom to thank! ❤️ Our regular hours for donations: Wednesdays from 10 to noon, Fridays from 4 to 5:30pm, and Saturdays from 9 to 10am.

  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 TACO FRIDAY for an early Cinco de Mayo celebration, 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. E...