Located inside the Immaculate Conception Church, our Soup Kitchen has been serving the needy and homeless of Fairbanks for 30 plus years.
In response to the pandemic, we have restructured our ministry: Where once we served Saturday and Sunday only in Murphy Hall (our social hall), we now serve five days a week but in a "drive-thru" style out of one of a former office room window. We serve anywhere from 550 to 650 meals per week during the summer and 300-400 meals during the winter.
We are open from 1:00pm-3:00pm Saturdays and Sundays. This typically consists of a hot meal, a hot drink, and other meal items (fruit, veggies, pastries, protein items) using food that is primarily donated by Fairbanks Memorial Hospital and the Fairbanks Food Bank, but also through the generosity of individual donors from the parish, other churches and organizations, or just people of good-will from the Golden Heart City of Fairbanks!
In addition to hot meals and drinks, we also provide roughly 250 sack lunch meals since our soup kitchen is the only place serving the people in town on weekends. These sack lunches are intended to act as an additional meal for later in the day. A typical sack lunch, which we estimate costs $4.00 each (and that's being conservative!), consists of the following: bottle of water (during the winter), a sandwich, a granola bar or trail mix type item, a fruit item, a salty item such as chips or pretzels, a small dessert, and a spoon and napkin. We also serve fresh vegetables, hard- boiled eggs, and string cheese on these days as well. Items we need to make our bag lunches include:
Peanut butter/Jelly
String Cheese
Baby Carrots/Celery
Granola bars/Trail Mix
Chips/Pretzels
Fruit Cups
Bottled water
Eggs
Ziploc bags: sandwich/snack size
Brown lunch bags
Disposable spoons
Small napkins
Other items that help our operation: Coffee/Tea, Hot drink packets/containers (cocoa, apple cider), homemade baked goods, hotel-sized hygiene items (soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, baby wipes).
We also give out some clothing items (new or in good condition), but due to storage limitations, we try to only keep items that are universally sized and that can easily be stored:
Winter Socks (preferrably wool or synthetic, no cotton)
Summer Socks (any material is fine)
Gloves
Belts
Hats
Hand/Toe Warmers
Winter Underwear (same as socks: no cotton)
Summer Underwear
Neck Warmers (scarves/gaiters)
Items that we can hold onto in limited supply in sizes Large and up:
T-shirts
Sweatshirts
Coats
Items that have proven too difficult to maintain on site and should be taken to the Fairbanks Rescue Mission, the Interior Alaska Center for Non-Violent Living, or the Salvation Army:
Pants
Shoes
Boots
Volunteers are the backbone of our ministry; in coming to serve, they are both served and blessed by the Lord of Servants, Jesus. We have a variety of tasks that need to be done on any given day:
Food preparation
Serving room operations
General cleaning (both in the kitchen and the church)
Supervising and interacting with patrons while they eat
If you have a servant’s heart and want to minister in one or more of these areas, please reflect and pray to see if our Heavenly Father is calling you to these corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Check out the Volunteer portion of this website for further information on how to become a volunteer here at ICC. Your gifts of time, talent, and treasure are greatly appreciated not just by the soup kitchen, but especially by the people we serve. However you choose to serve, you are making a great difference in their lives!
The kitchen can be reached via e-mail at [email protected], by phone at 907-452-3533, ext. 1003, or in person at the church typically between the hours of 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM.
Thank you, and God bless!