Hope Center provides hot meals

The Salvation Army Hope Center helps provide the basic needs to families and single men and women living in Portage County.

The basic needs include shelter, food and information about how to access community resource.

Located at 1600 Briggs St., Stevens Point, the facility offers short-term emergency housing with a capacity of 30 people.

It serves three hot, nutritious meals per day to its residents.

A professional chef prepares the meals.

Hope Center also serves three free meals daily to nonresidents.

“During Covid we handed bag lunches to anyone who came in,” said Leigh Ann Trzinski, Hope Center director.

Hope Center recently purchased a HotLogic mini portable heating oven so now the to-go meals are warmed to 165 degrees.

Since introducing the hot meals, Trzinski said the number of people coming for the meals has nearly doubled.

Between 25 and 30 people receive meals from the Hope Center. “We’re making a positive impact for people who are struggling,” Trzinski said.

Nearly 2,000 to-go meals per month are distributed monthly at the Hope Center in Stevens Point.

The Salvation Army’s programs to help those in need in the community are mad possible by charitable donations.

To find out more about the Hope Center, go to centralusa.salvationarmy.org/stevenspoint/programs-and-services/