The Olive Tree recently purchased the former United Furniture Warehouse building.
“We’ve just started renovations and we hope to be serving meals there sometime this summer,” says Becky Schille, Director of The Olive Tree.
Schille says that The Olive Tree hasn’t decided completely on what services are going to be located there, but they know they will be serving the community meals there which serves a wide variety of people including families, children and seniors.
“One of the main issues, the phone calls I get ask where are the meals tonight and so I think it will really simplify our services for those that are using them. It’s not a question of where can I go to get help, it’s I can go to The Olive Tree to get support.”
Schille adds that it will also help donors.
“When people donate food right now, we’re always telling them to go to different places, cause we’re in different buildings that day, that kind of thing so it’s just really going to streamline our supports to everybody.”
The Olive Tree thanks the community support and the Fred North Foundation for their donations to allow them to put a down payment on the building but they still need help.
“We’re putting in a commercial kitchen and with that comes a lot of big costs and lots of little costs as well, we hope to seat 125 people at each meal, so you need 125 chairs, enough tables and cutlery and cups and all those kind of things. So we’re just fundraising for all of those kind of items, and we would like to pay off the mortgage as soon as we can,” says Schille.
For more information on the fundraising efforts you can check out their Capital Campaign Guide or you can contact The Olive Tree at 780-870-1060.