After two years of financial uncertainty, The Gathering Place in North Bay has paid off its debt owed to the Canada Revenue Agency. That $465,000 debt threatened to close the Cassells Street community soup kitchen. The charity’s board chair, Peter Gregory, said coming out of the massive six-figure debt came as a huge relief – but he notes the soup kitchen is not fully out of the woods just yet. “All of our bills are current. Everything is up to date,” he told CTV News on Friday morning. “But we still owe some money. I just want to make that clear.” Rising costs, record demand Rising food costs, record demand and the heavy cost of running North Bay’s Winter Warming Centre pushed the soup kitchen into a crisis in 2024. Audited statements showed there was about $465,000 owed to the CRA in unpaid payroll remittances, interest and penalties. Short-term debts exceeded short-term assets by more than $673,000 and operating costs of more than $1 million a year led to a formal warning from its auditors. “When I first took over as chair, we had decided that we were going to close our doors,” Gregory said. “That’s when we got together and put our heads together and said, ‘No, we don’t want to do that.’” Tough choices Many tough choices were made to cut operating costs nearly in half, including laying off staff –wages and benefits were slashed by 60 per cent. The charity also ended its warming centre operations and daily meals were scaled back to just one a day at lunch. “On behalf of the North Bay Food Bank, congratulations to Peter, the board, the staff and every volunteer at The Gathering Place,” said Louise Lowe, the food bank’s chair. “What they’ve done is remarkable. They carried a crushing debt, made the tough decisions and kept feeding people every single day.” Government funding for the soup kitchen through the District of Nipissing Social Services Administration Board fell from about $257,000 to just $50,000. The social services board denied the soup kitchen $140,000 in emergency financial assistance in 2024 because at the time the soup kitchen didn’t produce the required financial documents in time. Mark King, the services board chair, said that despite that decision, he always felt strongly about the soup kitchen’s vital role in the community. “We know they’re on solid footing, which is absolutely important,” he said. “Peter Gregory, he was like a dog with a bone. He was on the phone with me always trying to find avenues to fix the problem.” King told CTV News it is a relief that The Gathering Place overcame this financial hurdle, citing its role in feeding people who are just above the poverty line. Kitchen serving about 130 clients The Gathering Place is running today with three full-time and two part-time staff members, serving about 130 clients who have had to deal with higher grocery prices, inflation and the general skyrocketing cost of living that is hitting people’s wallets harder than ever. “They’re not getting the relief that I believe they need to get and that that’s where the problem is,” Gregory said. “We have a lot more working poor coming in the door.” Gregory, however, said he is worried about how the situation will look when the winter season begins. Gregory added that what keeps staff and volunteers motivated is the 18 per cent rise in donations and fundraising. He said the Coldest Night of the Year, Soup’s On and the Davedi Club spaghetti dinner all played their part in the kitchen’s fundraising success. Additionally, over the past year, the soup kitchen has rescued more than 180,000 pounds of surplus food from grocers and partners that would have otherwise been thrown out. It shares that food with youth centres, shelters, group homes and church and student food banks across the city. “Without that support, we can’t keep our doors open and we appreciate all the support we get,” said Gregory.
