After a long summer, Soup for the Soul reopens in a new building

First published Thursday, Sept. 10, 2024 in the Dundalk Eagle.

Soup for the Soul, which provides a free, hot meal and groceries every week, reopened Monday after a three-month hiatus to a crowd of around 60 hungry people grateful for a sit-down meal.

The idea, said volunteer Jason Rampersad, better known as DJ Rampage, is to “make humans feel like human beings.”

And it does.

Soup for the Soul served chicken salad sandwiches, potato chips, apple sauce, cinnamon cake, carrot cake, iced tea and coffee on Monday. It’s planning to offer people groceries as well soon.

It’s a crucial lifeline for families like Kellsey Simms and husband Aaron Simms. Both work full-time, Kellsey as a day care teacher and occasionally with DoorDash, Aaron at Tulkoff Food Products as a garlic blender. But they can’t make ends meet for themselves and their two kids, Abigail and Xander.

The two make slightly too much to qualify for food stamps, Kellsey said, leaving them in an impossible situation — quit their jobs to take a pay cut and receive food stamps or continue working and not being able to make ends meet. After taxes, rent and bills, Aaron said they only have $100 to $150 left for food and other necessities.

“It’s nothing,” Aaron said.

Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, the two said they made a comfortable living. Then Kellsey caught the virus and was out of commission for several weeks. On government orders, her employer paid her, she said.

Aaron, meanwhile, couldn’t go to work because he was exposed to the virus — and his employer at first refused to pay him for the time he couldn’t work. Both ended up quitting their jobs and finding new ones.

Kellsey’s work experience puts her in a bind, she said. She only has experience taking care of kids, but dreams of becoming a nurse. No place will hire her, she said, because her hands shake. She doesn’t want to throw the money into getting hired because she knows she won’t be hired.

That, in turn, leaves the family in a bind. They don’t earn enough for a stable living but do not qualify for government assistance. And a bag of chicken nuggets will last the family only three days, they said.

That’s where Soup for the Soul, which serves a meal and offers groceries every Monday from 3 to 5:30 p.m., and other food pantries come in — they can help fill in the gaps.

It’s a similar story for Steve Dobbs and his son Levi. Steve works at Rutger Terminals Corp., unloading ship containers and sending the products inside on their way to consumers and stores.

His $50,000 salary used to be enough for himself, Levi and paying child support until about a year ago, when utility prices, gas prices, property taxes, car insurance and more kept going up.

“It’s only gotten harder the past year or two,” Steve said. “Before that, we were doing pretty okay.”

Nowadays, after taxes and bills, he’s left with $70 to $80 to feed himself and his 17-year-old son.

“I don’t know who to point the finger at at this point,” he said, “inflation or corporate greed.”

The weekly pantry, located in its fourth — and, volunteers hope, its last — location in the Church of God at Dundalk’s basement, has been around for 42 years.

First, Soup for the Soul was part of St. Rita’s Church, boosted by funding from the Archdiocese of Baltimore, until St. Rita’s Church sold off its building in 2018. Then, it moved to the United Methodist Church — until it, too, sold off its building in 2021.

Most recently, it had a home at 299 Willow Spring Road — until the organization got sticker shock at the price of buying the building, Executive Director Stacy Nagel said.

For others, like Aaron Rice, Soup for the Soul is a place to socialize with others.

“It’s a blessing to have places like this,” he said. “I’m not poor, but I just like the idea, just coming out and getting something to eat and being with different people of God.”