St. Mary's Soup Kitchen

1975 — soup from the rectory back porch

Founding: The soup kitchen at St. Mary Mother of God parish began in 1975, when the pastor, Father Tom O'Connor, started serving soup to the poor from the back porch of his rectory — the soup made on the pastor's own stove. It moved into the church basement in 1980 and into a separate facility in 1998. The parish's account claims 75,000 meals served in the first year; the diocesan paper's later figures put the kitchen past 100,000 meals partway through 2011 and describe it in 2017 as the largest soup kitchen in northeast Indiana, serving over 250,000 meals annually — the figures vary by source and year and are carried as reported, not reconciled.

Continuity: The kitchen's own legend of itself was earned on 2 September 1993, when St. Mary's church burned: the day after the fire the soup kitchen served anyway, using food from the Eckrich Labor Day picnic, then worked from the breezeway and boiler house until its own building rose. In October 2023 Today's Catholic marked 48 years of service, 250 or more meals a day.

Sources:

1. Today's Catholic (Diocese of Fort Wayne–South Bend), 14 September 2011 — the 1975 back-porch beginning under Fr. Tom O'Connor; 100,000 meals in 2011.
2. Today's Catholic, parish histories, 2017 and 2019 — the stove, the 1980 basement move, the 1998 facility, "largest soup kitchen in northeast Indiana, over 250,000 meals annually."
3. Today's Catholic, October 2023 — the day-after-the-fire service in 1993; 48 years, 250-plus meals daily.