William Haynes, a volunteer, wipes up the tables inside of the Chattanooga Community Kitchen after serving lunch Wednesday. The Community Kitchen is about $150,000 short on fundraising, despite the efforts of the kitchen’s Fast Day campaign, where people give up at last one meal to donate to the kitchen instead.The Community Kitchen isn’t desperate, but organizers say it could use some help to meet its $700,000 fundraising goal.
“We’re about $175,000 short, so we’re really counting on people to help us out between now and the end of the year to make that deficit up or we’ll have to go back in January and take a look at programs and staffing,” said Charlie Hughes, the kitchen’s executive director.
The kitchen’s Fast Day campaign is its biggest fundraiser of the year, starting in the fall and ending the second week in January. The idea is that people give up at least one meal and donate money for that meal to the Community Kitchen.
The kitchen has met its fundraising goals for the last five years, and Hughes hopes this year will be no different. Cutting staff, such as a maintenance person, will force other staff to do more work, he said, and most already have more than one task at the kitchen.
“If the goal is not reached the community kitchen will have to scale back some services,” said Fast Day campaign chairman William Aiken, a local attorney. “We regard all the services vital to meeting the needs of our community. There’s not much else to say. Meeting the goal is critical.”