‘A place we can finally call home’: Agape Table opens new space as food insecurity rises in Winnipeg

Agape Table finally has a dedicated space to call its home after more than 40 years. Joseph Bernacki reports.

For the first time in its 46 years of helping Manitobans, Agape Table is finally opening a stand-alone space where they can expand operations.

“Really, it’s a place that we can finally call home,” said Dave Feniuk, general manager at Agape Table on Thursday.

After breaking ground on a new building in October 2024, the nonprofit will move to a new space on Furby Street. The organization had previously operated for eight years out of the basement of the nearby Wave Church.

During that time, they served hundreds of thousands of meals to vulnerable Winnipeggers as food insecurity continues to rise.

“Our numbers are staggering,” Feniuk said.

“In 2019 we’re at 85,000 meals for the year, last year we’re up to 188,000 (meals).”

The state-of-the-art facility offers more kitchen space, storage and refrigeration. In addition, Agape Table will now be open seven days a week and serve sit-down meals in the space for the first time since March 2020.

“We’re going to get back to that,” said Jim Steep, executive director of Agape Table.

“Really unfortunate for that many years that we had to serve lunch at the door, but bringing them back inside, it’s a sense of community.”

Steep said there will be a learning curve as they welcome people back in the coming weeks. The main seating area can hold up to a maximum of 150 people.

More Winnipeg organizations expanding to address food insecurity

At Chalmers Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation, they give donated food every Thursday from community partners to 300 people on average.

Since they launched the program last fall people wait for hours to bring home groceries.

“The cost of fresh produce, fruits and vegetables, astronomical,” said Leilani Villarba, executive director of Chalmers Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation.

“When they can get it for free, and it will help them get through a week or to their next paycheck, that is gratifying.”

Villarba said the organization also plans to convert the former Elmwood ice cream shop, Sky Sundae at 301 Ottawa Ave. into a low-cost grocery store mixed with transitional housing.

She said they hope to open the grocery store later this summer.

“We know it will be a food rescue store,” she said, explaining that a rescue diverts useable food into fighting hunger.

“The things that we do are based on all of our partnerships.”