Martha & Mary’s clothing store
to be demolished
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — Martha & Mary’s Soup Kitchen in Presque Isle will soon have additional parking as the organization’s nearby “clothing building” will be torn down later this month.
According to Cindy Patten, who runs the soup kitchen and serves on the Martha & Mary’s Ministries board of directors, the clothing store has been vacant for quite some time.
“A few months prior to the city implementing its pay-as-you-throw program, we stopped taking donations of clothes and closed that building,” she said. “We were finding that people would leave clothes that weren’t in good condition — as well as other garbage — and we just couldn’t afford to keep a dumpster. Every other day the dumpster was full.
“With three other organizations in town that accept clothing — The Cubby, Catholic Charities and the Salvation Army — it made sense for us to get out of the clothing side of it and focus on our original objective … providing needy people with free meals,” said Patten, who has volunteered with Martha & Mary’s for 14 years. “That building has been vacant since March 2011, and I finally found somebody willing to take it down. He’s going to do the work for free and will keep what wood he can. Though it will depend on the weather, he expects to have it torn down within the next 2-3 weeks.”
Patten said the city’s pay-as-you-throw program prompted Martha & Mary’s to look at how it was handling trash.
“Now any leftovers or food items that we would throw in the garbage goes into a bag and a man who raises pigs comes and picks it up. We are down to only one small, orange bag per week for the soup kitchen. It costs us less than $2 a week for garbage removal,” she said. “When the city switched to pay-as-you-throw, it actually helped us out tremendously. It really benefited us to stop accepting clothing.”
Martha & Mary’s only accepts food or monetary donations.
The soup kitchen/pantry, which has about 40 volunteers, serves between 60-75 meals per day.
“We serve only the supper/dinner meal,” said Patten.
Meals are served from 3-5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. People can either eat in the dining room or take their meals to go.
“I’m looking forward to having a bigger parking lot,” said Patten. “It will be much easier for people to find a place to park especially in the winter time.”
For more information on volunteer opportunities at the soup kitchen, which is located at 21 Parsons St. in Presque Isle, call Patten at 764-3690.
