Romero House has cut the ribbon on a major expansion in Saint John.
The new warehouse will give the soup kitchen proper storage and a cold room for the first time in its history.
The $1.1 million project was funded by Clow Canada, a national manufacturer with deep roots in the city. Company employees also joined volunteers to help move food into the new facility during the grand opening.
RELATED: Saint John’s Romero House expands facility with $1.1M donation from Clow Canada
Executive director Evelyn McNulty said the expansion ends years of struggling with makeshift storage.
“For about five years we’ve been storing food upstairs in milk crates, piled on top of each other without shelves,” she said. “To once again have proper storage and a cold room is an amazing gift to us.”
McNulty said the project also fulfills the last item on a wish list left by her late mother, Carolyn, who founded Romero House in 1982.
“The last thing on her list was to have secure, good storage for the food coming in,” she said. “To be able to complete that list as her daughter and as director is an incredible thing.”
She described the donation as extraordinary.
“I’m sure it’s probably a once in a few kitchens lifetime donation,” McNulty said.
“I’m flabbergasted by the donation, I’m so appreciative, and it will be put to amazingly good use, as is everything that comes into this building.”
The expansion comes as demand for meals continues to rise. McNulty said Romero House served 82,000 meals in 2019, the year before the COVID‑19 pandemic.
Since then, the number has nearly doubled to about 150,000 meals annually. She said the increase reflects the growing number of people struggling to afford food.
“Your money goes less far all the time,” McNulty said. “Everybody eats, and the wiggle room in your budget comes from your food. It doesn’t come from your rent or your power bill.”
McNulty added that society needs to place more value on people who are struggling.
“If we valued the poor, the disenfranchised, people with addictions and people with mental health issues, we would direct resources to embrace those people and help them with what they need,” she said.
Looking ahead, McNulty said Romero House’s mission remains to meet people where they are and to ease the daily burden of survival.
“If we can alleviate one aspect of what a person needs to survive so they can free their time to do something else that’s going to further their situation in a better way, then I feel like we’ve accomplished something worthwhile,” she said.
Romero House has served more than three million meals since it opened in 1982. Volunteers remain at the heart of the operation, which McNulty described as a place of resilience and compassion.
