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Charitable soup kitchen opening in Vilnius

On March 19, 2002 charitable soup kitchen "Old Friends Home" in Vilnius held its grand opening. Vilnius fund "Viso passaulio viltis" (that means "Hope of all world") rented a small cozy cafe for soup kitchen. It is placed near the old Vilnius district. According the information of local government most of the poorest pensioners live in this area. Some flats hasn't lights inside because of the electricity was turned off for overdue payments. The communal payment is higher than in Moscow and equals a half of pension. The other half of pension is not enough to buy food and medicine. Many pensioners of Vilnius are below the poverty line. Representative of Vilnius Administration Social Service Mrs. Chepenate remarked in her speech on the opening that social help of free meals decreased by four times in 2002. So free meals for poor people in Vilnius is vitally important help for alone pensioners. She also wished that all charitable soup kitchens of the city used "Old Friends Home" as model for their work.

The soup kitchen feeds 40 seniors from its opening and soon the number will grow to 50. Russians and Polish pensioners also visit "Old Friends Home" among the Lithuanian pensioners. Five days a week they have free of charge hot lunches and participate different programs. The soup kitchen was organized not only for meals but to fulfill social and emotional needs of alone and poor people. The mission of the program is to save the pensioners from loneliness, to help them to feel needed by society, to establish the friendship between the alone people. The program includes birthday and holidays celebrations, bingo, and concerts. It will use the 5 years experience of same project in Moscow, which is realized by HOPE worldwide Moscow. The plans are to increase the number of people who get help by spreading the food among the needy pensioners.

At the end of the grand opening every guest could taste the quality of lunches. On pensioner brought the accordion and everyone could dance and sing. They sang Lithuanian, Russian and Ukraine song. This event was the most striking holiday for many pensioners during last several years.