ASHTABULA — The soup kitchen at G.O. Ministries will be suspended starting July 1 unless significant funding can be found in the interim, says Bill Hubler, president of the G.O. Community Development Corp.

Hubler stressed that the move is temporary and G.O. is not shutting down, but it must respond to the economic realities facing the board. Hubler says donations to the Cleveland Avenue ministry are down by 90 percent compared to the ministry’s peak year and, as a result, the all-volunteer board has not had the money to pay the utility bills for the two-story building.

“Between the water, electric and gas, we’re over $8,000,” says Hubler of the utilities indebtedness.

The outreach has other bills that need addressed, and a mortgage. All told, Hubler says they will need $30,000 to salvage the soup kitchen.

Patricia Green, a volunteer who oversees the soup kitchen ministry, says they typically serve 80 to 100 evening meals five days a week. The center is also open for coffee and doughnuts in the morning.

Both the Dream Center and Salvation Army serve meals at lunch, but G.O. is the only outreach in the depressed neighborhood that serves an evening meal. Green said that for many of their guests, it is the only hot meal they have all day.

The ministry is facing a shutoff of its natural gas service July 1, which would severely limit the kitchen operation. Hubler said the board plans to continue the weekly food pantry distribution on Thursdays, the monthly fresh produce distribution from the Cleveland Food Bank and the clothing bank. The chapel is separate from the Community Development Corp. and worship services held there won’t be affected.

Hubler said the ministry can obtain food from various sources, but finding cash donations to pay the utilities and other expenses is more challenging. The main source of these donations has been individuals, with the occasional corporate or church donor. Hubler said the board exhausted the ministry’s savings and now has no choice but to suspend the soup kitchen.

“We have to draw the line at some point. We got to get these bills paid down,” Hubler says.

Elbert and Shirley Hanna, two of the board’s seven volunteer members, worry about what will happen to the people who depend upon G.O. for their evening meal. Shirley says the people who receive the services are “respectful” and very appreciative of what G.O. does for them. Green says many of the people in the neighborhood served by G.O. are disabled, and transportation is a huge issue for them.

“(Transportation) is a huge and growing need in Ashtabula County and this neighborhood, in particular,” Hubler says.

Transportation is also an issue for G.O.; the ministry has access to donations of bread and other food from bakers and distributors, but no way to get it to the soup kitchen. And on food distribution day, there is a need for volunteers with vehicles to transport the boxes of food to the recipients’ homes.

Perhaps the ministry’s greatest need, however, is a more efficient building. Hubler says their Cleveland Avenue headquarters, erected in 1904 as a manufacturing plant for the Harris King Fence Machine Co., is extremely inefficient and needs extensive repairs to the concrete, electrical and plumbing system.

“In 1904 they didn’t worry about insulation, they just stoked the furnace,” he says.

The board’s dream is to purchase the former Thurgood Marshall School on Station Avenue from the Ashtabula Area City Schools Board of Education and relocate G.O. there. “If somebody in the community would step up (and buy the building) we would move in there about sometime yesterday,” Hubler says. Their plan would be to have other outreaches/agencies use space in the building, as well.

As to why Hubler and the others continue to put so much effort into this neighborhood and outreach, he says “I have some friends here, and I can’t stand the idea of them hurting without getting some assistance.

“The biggest challenge with poverty is what I call the ‘three Ds’: depression, discouragement and despair. They are like a demon ...” he says.

Donations to the ministry can be made at any branch of Andover Bank by making a deposit to the G.O. Community Development Corp. account, or call the ministry at 992-9118.