When more families are turning to meal programs just to put food on the table, we know…

For some, it's a place to grab a meal. For others, it's a place to feel like they belong. Oh, we've been coming here and there and stuff like that, like for a while. Tiny Home Takeout is now serving hundreds of people a night. And organizers say the people coming through the door are changing. The last year and a half, two years, the number of one-parent families has increased significantly and so we're seeing a lot more kids, we're seeing a lot more parents. The program has grown significantly since it started and organizers say one of the biggest changes is the number of families coming for food. When we first started, we would have like 50, 60, 70 people a night back in 2021 and that number has been steadily growing every year and this summer our numbers have ranged from between 280 per night to 350 per night. We have more families that are coming with their children because they are struggling to put food on the table. And it's not just families. The organization says Tiny Home Takeout is for anyone with no income assessment and no judgment. The last thing they need to worry about is finding healthy, nutritious food and we're there for them. It doesn't matter if they walk up barefoot or if they come in a car, we feed everybody. For volunteers, the work is about more than food. We've seen just such a shift in people needing to access the resources, people having to choose between food or activities. And for people who come through the door, it can be about something as simple as sitting down with other people. It's just the, you know, the sense of being together and smiling together and sitting down and having a coffee with us, you know, and people need that. People need to sit down and have a coffee with somebody and have a smile. Being in a community and just going out makes the world to him. Sunday's event, Hungry No More, is one of the program's biggest fundraisers of the year. Food vendors, entertainment, and even a dunk tank are helping raise money to keep the kitchen running. Last year, I think it was pushing 185,000, so if we can be in that bracket again, I mean, we're over the moon, but anything over 150,000 is a big success. And the need isn't going away. Tiny Home Takeout now serves about 300 people a night on average. It's not a matter of needing to be unsheltered or needing to be low income. It really is for everybody. And the idea is to bring the community together, regardless of socioeconomic status or diversity of backgrounds, and to share a meal, break bread together. A meal, a place at the table, and a community that's still showing up.