Local Ministry Expanding Services at Soup Kitchen
New services will soon be available at the Toccoa Soup Kitchen on Whitman St.
An effort is underway to help Toccoa-Stephens County’s homeless and under-privileged by offering them free showers and access to free laundry.
The P230 Foundation is working to build the new facilities in the same building that currently houses the Toccoa Soup Kitchen on Whitman Street.
P230 Foundation Founder Steve Paysen tells WNEG News, the new services are part of an overall new ministry.
“Our ministry is taking over the Soup Kitchen and we’re expanding the services there and we’re creating what we call, “The Hope Center of Toccoa,” he said. “It’s there for anybody who needs it, the working poor, the homeless or don’t have adequate facilities for showers or laundry.”
Anyone who needs to use the laundry or take a shower will be able to do so free of charge,
Rooms like this one in the old Whitman St. school building will be converted into a laundry room and rooms with showers
according to Paysen.
He says said the new phase of ministry will also be used to help children in the school system who need help cleaning their clothes.
“We’re going to focus also on some of the children in school that have those issues who don’t have the ability to have their clothes laundered properly or at all or regularly,” Paysen explained. “We will attempt to implement a pick up and drop off system at public schools. We’ll pick up a bag of their clothes, wash them and deliver them back for them to take home that evening after school. There’s 40 families in the school system who are at risk. That number is going up rather than going down.”
Paysen said funding for the laundry and shower addition is coming from various sources, including grants.
The expanded ministry is expected to be open sometime in the fall.