Stone Soup Kitchen Ministries

  We will be back on our regular schedule next week, just as soon as all the mess is cleaned up from the fire.  

  There was a fire this morning at Shepherd of the Valley, caused by the workers who were repaving the Cambridge Street parking lot. The entire area around our gray door, the entrance to both the kitchen and to the Saturday pantry, was affected as you can see in the pictures. As much as we love to see all of you, please don't make any deliveries to us this week (and probably not next week either) as we are having to work around not having access to our door. Thank you for understanding!   Unfortunately, we will not be able to have dinner this week, and we will only be able to have a very limited pantry service on Saturday. We'll have to see about next week. The good news in all of this is that although our friend Martha and the preschool teachers were there, the children were off this week! Everyone was safe, and that's what matters most. Our entryway was destroyed, but our freezers were undamaged. I was told that if the fire department had been delayed by a m...

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 spaghetti casserole, 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 an...

Good morning everyone! What a relief to wake up to temperatures in the 70s today. My apologies to those of you who love the 90 degree days, but this is my weather and I was so happy this morning :-) We had a great weekend, which started off with Friday dinner being provided by our friends at St Andrew's Episcopal Church in Ayer. Many thanks to Melanie, Elly, and Ginger for the delicious selection of summer salads and lemon cake. It was perfect for a beautiful summer afternoon. On Saturday, we were able to share nature's bounty with many of our neighbors and friends thanks to local gardeners, the Ayer Community Garden, Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church, the Boston Area Gleaners, Community Harvest Project, Merrimack Valley Food Bank, and Theo's Market Gardens. This is such a great time of year for fresh foods, and thanks to our friends Alison + Rich, we don't have to worry about leftovers going to waste. All the excess goes west to some other pantries that ...

  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 multiple summer salads, including chicken, pasta, and tomato/corn, various other 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 some...

  Good morning all! I have a lot to tell you about again this week, and most of it happened without my help :-) Once more, I am full of gratitude for the amazing people that volunteer at Stone Soup Kitchen, and for all the generous community members who took care of everything this past week. And I mean that they took care of EVERYTHING, because I had covid and was out of commission for the entire week. During that time, volunteers packed up everything for Saturday's pantry, served dinner on Friday evening, delivered everything that needed to be delivered, ran the food pantry and the coffee bar, removed and replaced a freezer that decided to die (thank you so much!), ran an amazing food drive, delivered it, and put away everything from the food drive. I can't thank all of you enough for taking care of everything like you did, but I'll try: THANK YOU ALL! So, the details on the food drive: On Saturday, August 9, the Rotary Club of Ayer, Shirley, Harvard, and Deven...

On Saturday, August 9, the Rotary Club of Ayer, Shirley, Harvard, and Devens sponsored a "Fill a Cruiser" event, along with the A yer Police Department and the Shirley Police Department .  It was a beautiful sunny day, not too hot for a change, and the results were truly inspiring!  Our thanks go out to Ayer Shop 'n Save too, for allowing the group to use their parking lot.   We are so grateful to the community for coming out to support this effort.  It comes in the middle of the 5th Annual Ayer Police August Food Drive : during the month of August each year, the Police Station collects canned and packaged foods for Stone Soup Kitchen in their lobby.  Since the Station is open 24/7, this is an extremely important event each year, which gets the food pantry through the food drought of each summer.  Here are some pictures to help you enjoy the event!  Thank you so much to all our friends at Rotary, APD, and SPD for their time and effort in pullin...

  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 chicken broccoli alfredo 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 everyone! I have so many things to tell you about this week...I'm hoping that I can do them all justice and not forget any of them! On Saturday, our friends Lin and Vinny had a lemonade stand to raise funds for us. They were joined by a fire truck with flashing lights, and a couple of Ayer's finest, both from the Fire Department and the Police Station. I've included some pictures for you. Special thanks to Jeff Swenson, Brendan Hurley, and Brenton Bourne from the Fire Department! Also on Saturday, we made a new friend who came to help at the pantry. Curt L is deeply involved with North Central Habitat for Humanity. You may be aware that a Habitat duplex is being built on Newton St in Ayer. If you'd like to get involved with our local chapter, you can find all the info you need at https://ncmhabitat.org/ Next Saturday, August 9th from 10 to 1 in the Shop 'n Save parking lot, the Ayer and Shirley Police Stations will be teaming up with the Ayer ...

  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 hamburgers and cheeseburgers (no hotdogs, even though they are shown in the picture 😉 ) 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 y...