Hub Staff

For 15 years the Living Hope Christian Centre, located in the Maple Square Mall in Port Elgin, has been providing a weekly Monday night by-donation community dinner during the months of September through May as well as a community lunch every Friday at 12 noon throughout the year.

The Monday night meals usually break in the summer months but this year the Queen's Bar & Grill, Port Elgin stepped up to keep the weekly meal running. “They usually stop the meals in May because they don't have the volunteers through the summer so we said we'd do it,” said Pier Donnini, owner of Queen's Bar & Grill. “We provided every meal, every week, every Monday and then we had a group of volunteers who were manning the actual kitchen and serving. I would cook the meal here and bring it over and then they would serve it,” he said.

Donnini praised the volunteers and wanted to extend a thank you to Lynn Davey, Doug Bastein, Lil Hornsby, Eileen Biener, Joni McNeice, Renee Wilson, Wayne Wilson, Laurie Laur, Hayley Laur, Cheryl Reburn, Ternia Wnuk, Janet Desjardins, Charles Bailey, Sue Rutherford, Mary Jo Arnett, Charmaine Kingston, Brenda Yourth, Carol Sonnenburg, Barb Deboer, Susan Dunlop, Rein Tisler, Martha Tisler, Sam Granger, Ryan Crosetta, Sophia Rinaldis, Diane Rinaldis, Leslie Turcotte, Audrey Turcotte, Bethany Gilbert-Boyd, Kate Gilbert-Boyd, Lauren Gilbert-Boyd, Del Crosetta, Nikki Walker, Griffin Walker, Lori Walker, and Dianne Crosetta.

Pastor Bob Cotie of the Living Hope Christian Centre lauded Donnini. “Pier stepped forward and was willing to provide and gave such a wonderful variety of meals,” he said. “He's so very conscientious about healthy eating that we were quite excited to have it go on for the summer.”

Cotie said that the centre has had up to 75 volunteers helping with the dinners. The volunteers are divided into four teams so that each team helps out once every four weeks. “Some fresh volunteers for the summer was really good and was part of the success of it and it was very well received by the community. They were delighted and the food was excellent.”

Queen's Bar & Grill also donates a meal every month for the Living Hope Christian Centre. “I bring a complete meal like a roast or chicken or pork and then a salad and vegetables and bread,” said Donnini.

He said that the centre gets approximately 100 to 140 people a week coming for a meal. “The need doesn't stop just because it’s summer time. It's not just necessarily about financial issues. Mental health issues, elderly, some loneliness, things like that,” Donnini said.

Cotie added, “It's been great and we appreciate Pier's heart for the community and it’s sure been a great blessing to us and to many others.”

And again this year, the Queen's Bar & Grill will be providing a Christmas dinner at the Living Hope Centre on Christmas Eve, starting at 5 p.m. “We fed about 250 last year, so a full-on turkey dinner for anyone who shows up,” Donnini said, adding that they also delivered approximately 50 to 60 meals for those who were unable to make it to the centre.