Friendship Inn continues to operate, looking for monetary donations amid COVID-19 pandemic

The Friendship Inn is continuing its service to the community while practising social distancing.

The community centre has been operating for just over 50 years, but never during a situation like we’re seeing now with the COVID-19 crisis.

Executive director Sandra Kary said they continue to offer meals, but not at their 20th street location.

“We shifted to having a takeaway service,” she told 650 CKOM Thursday.

“We’ve done well to adapt. I think it’s been challenging just simply shifting some of the ways we do things, and just letting people know why we’re doing it. Not everyone understands exactly what is happening. We take a minute or two to try and educate our guests as to what’s going on, and why we’re doing it.”

As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, Kary said there’s no indication on when they’ll re-open their doors to some of the city’s most vulnerable. That doesn’t mean that they’re stopping the focus of looking at new ways to operate the community centre, though.

“We’re being mindful, we watch how other communities, other provinces, and even other countries are doing it,” she said. “We’re hopeful that we can get through it quickly, and we’ll be so thrilled to have guests back in our dining hall when that day comes.”

In terms of donations, the community centre is not actively looking for food donations at this time. They will still accept them if they do come in and will take the safety precautions to ensure the food is prepared safely for their guests.

Instead, Kary said, they’re looking for cash donations.

“In these times, we are actually inviting our donors, and the community, if they would be willing just to offer us a cash donation, either online or mailing in a cheque,” she said.

“That gives us the ability to move quickly, to buy the resources we need, to be efficient, and then just all be safe, and keep folks out of the grocery stores if they don’t need to be there.”

The community centre is currently offering the takeaway service daily from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. for breakfast, and 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. for lunch.