We’re in Good Company: Horizons Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry of Quincy

We’re in Good Company. Town and Country Bank and Peoples Prosperity Bank are honored to serve communities where small business owners are innovative and resilient.

Horizons Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry in Quincy has a saying, “No one leaves hungry.”

The organization was founded in 2009 to feed local residents who need food but, it also educates its 300 volunteers and the community about “the cycle of poverty and the issues faced by people living in poverty,” according to its website. This helps them serve clients with compassion and work to break the cycle of hardship.

Last year, Horizons served 38,000 people, from infants to grandparents. Since the pandemic began, the demand has increased.

“In the last eight weeks we’ve served 10,000 meals,” says Sarah Stephens, Horizons Executive Director. To comply with COVID-19 safety requirements, all establishments are now offering carry-out meals. The food pantry currently operates the same way, with take-out bags of food.  “We’re seeing people who have never needed assistance before. They’re people who are out of work because of the shutdown. A lot are low wage earners and people in the service industry.”

After the federal government stimulus checks and unemployment checks arrived, the surge died down “a little bit,” Stephens says. But the need remains greater than before, which means the costs for Horizons are greater, too.

The timing of the pandemic was a double whammy. Horizons had to cancel its largest fundraiser of the year. “We are a private organization, and we rely on the generosity of the community for funding,” Stephens says.

Around the same time, Horizons received a Small Business Administration Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan as part of the federal government’s pandemic relief efforts. “It was a lifesaver,” says Stephens. “We might have had to lay off employees if we didn’t get the loan. We were grateful for our partners at Peoples Prosperity Bank who worked tirelessly to submit our PPP application.”

Other individuals and businesses in the Quincy community have helped, too. “We have a donor who has provided our clients with four different meals from local restaurants, which are also struggling because of the stay-at-home order,” Stephens says.

The shutdown has reminded her “that we need to remain flexible and have a diverse pool of resources and partners.” One of those partners is Peoples Prosperity Bank. “We have always been so incredibly grateful to their staff,” she says. “They help us promote our fundraisers, they attend our fundraisers, they’re invested in our success. They’re more than business partners, they have become friends.”

For more information or to apply for an SBA Paycheck Protection Program loan, please contact us today!