This week is your chance to support an uptown Saint John soup kitchen.

The 17th annual Ritchie’s Food Drive for Romero House runs from Monday through Sunday.

Over the next six days, you can drop off food or cash donations at Ritchie’s on Rothesay Avenue.

Evelyn McNulty, executive director of Romero House, said the need is greater than ever before.

“In 2019, which was our last full year before COVID, we have served 82,000 meals, which was atrocious. To go from that to 150,000 meals is just really unbelievable,” McNulty said in an interview.

Romero House relies solely on donations from the public and the community and does not receive any government grants or funding.

McNulty said the annual food drive gives them stability for nearly the whole year when it comes to some of their staples.

Some of the key items they are looking for include rice, pasta, canned tomatoes, pasta sauce, and instant potatoes.

“The meal that we create are very much like at home,” said McNulty. “It’s exactly as if you went to go get groceries for a family of 10.”

You can find a full list of the wish list of ingredients by clicking here.

The food drive runs from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, and until noon on Saturday.