Saskatoon Friendship Inn serving up to 1,000 meals per day through pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has created many different challenges for local businesses in the community — and the Saskatoon Friendship Inn happens to be one of them.

Open 365 days a year, the Friendship Inn serves two nutritious meals a day — breakfast and lunch.

Sandra Kary, the executive director of the Saskatoon Friendship Inn, says there’s a true purpose in why the organization does so many different things to help people.

“We’re here in the city to provide free meals to those in need,” Kary told Gormley on Monday. “We’re here to make sure that people never go hungry and being open 365 days a year is what we do to help our vulnerable citizens.”

Kary said throughout the pandemic, people have come from all over the place in need of desperate help.

On any given day, there are between 800 and 1,000 meals being served to the community.

“There are some regulars, but there’s a lot of new people every day,” she said. “We see people from not just the city, but the surrounding areas.”

While the meals are an enormous part of the organization, there are several other areas in which the organization gets involved.

“We have a social worker on staff and she is available so that folks can seek her out (for) counselling and referrals to other agencies,” Kary said.

“(We’re) just working with folks to make sure they have every opportunity to take a good step forward.”

Despite having the right intentions, several programs within the organization have had to pivot around the pandemic in order to find success.

“We do all kinds of things like offering support programs for anger management and dynamic parenting. Just helping people get back into better housing situations,” Kary said.

“When we can open our doors a little more, we’re going to go down paths of more literacy pieces and support the community that’s most needed.”

All things considered, the pandemic has allowed the Friendship Inn to grow closer to other organizations that share the same values, according to Kary. That has resulted in the ability to reach out to more people.