April showers bring May flowers – and for the Michigan Area, April brought the re-opening of St. Leo’s Soup Kitchen at a new location, the PAL (Police Athletic League) building, 6945 Wagner Street, Detroit.

Organized by Michigan Area Hospitaller Kathleen Mastrangelo, DM, teams of Michigan Area volunteers work at the soup kitchen on the second and fourth Fridays of each month (and on fifth Fridays when they occur). Working under the direction of St. Leo’s kitchen manager, chef Dominic French, the Order of Malta teams help prepare and serve healthy lunches from scratch. Volunteers also chat with guests, clear plates, and clean up afterwards.

At the April 10 soup kitchen, the Order of Malta team prepared 75 bagged lunches and about the same number of hot lunches. Most of the meals were delivered to people in the area.

Each lunch included a note with the soup kitchen’s new location. “Since the move, we are still getting the word out to our neighbors,” Kathleen Mastrangelo explained. “For the near future, we will serve more people via delivery until we reach larger numbers of in-person guests.”

Volunteers included Kim Ford, volunteer coordinator for Catholic Charities; Associate Rana Jamil and her son Simon; volunteer Eva Gilbert and her son Simon; Stephanie Le, DM; Mark Thut, Member in Formation, and his wife Mary Thut.

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