Serving Others – TWC Interactive

St. John’s Kitchen: A 40 Year Journey

Stephanie Mancini December 1, 2025

It has been a long journey since Wednesday October 31, 1984. That was the day, during a late afternoon meeting held by the Core Area Ministry Committee, when a decision was made to develop a downtown community meal service. The discussions that resulted in St. John’s Kitchen had been going on for more than a year. Churches and social services were recognizing that many people living in the downtown struggled to access a daily meal.

Stories of Determined Hope

The Working Centre September 1, 2025

A young man in his early 30’s repeatedly visited the Emergency Department – 1800 times in three years. He appeared to be shelter seeking, but in reality had an untreated/undiagnosed mental health issue. Our team advocated for a longer term mental health admission and visited him in hospital every day, building trust and offering support for his wound care and mental health. He was discharged to King Street Shelter and when that shelter closed, we helped support him to interim housing.

Fr. Greg Boyle Visits The Working Centre

The Working Centre June 1, 2025

On May 15th, 2025, we had the pleasure of meeting with Fr. Greg Boyle who was in town to present a Lecture in Catholic Experience at St. Jerome’s University. The following is an excerpt from Fr. Greg’s talk

40 Years of St. John’s Kitchen

Joe Mancini December 1, 2024

In early January 2025, St. John’s Kitchen will mark 40 years of serving a daily weekday meal in downtown Kitchener. The journey to ensure that the door of St. John’s Kitchen is open each day to continually serve the daily meal and to be a place that people count on, is a major part of our 40 year story. It is also a story of a changing place, of responding to dramatic changes on the ground.

Warming Centre at 87 Victoria N Offers Support to the Unsheltered

The Working Centre March 1, 2024

This winter, outreach workers have estimated that more than 150 people are homeless without a place to live. This means that daily shelter for this group is a constant battle for survival. Sometimes they will get a place at an emergency shelter when there is an opening, other times they stay with a friend, other times they gather in a room where others are squatting or winter camping.

Serving Christmas Dinners

The Working Centre March 1, 2024

To celebrate the Christmas season, 800 Christmas meals were prepared at our commercial kitchen on Queen Street and were served at four different locations during the Christmas season. Chef Michael Bertling and volunteers cooked and chopped hundreds of pounds of turkey, potatoes, carrots and bread so that they could be served at four Christmas meals.

Community Dental Update

Ian Shantz September 30, 2023

After being put on the back burner out of pure necessity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Working Centre’s Community Dental Clinic is once again open. This news has The Working Centre Director Joe Mancini smiling. Food and housing became the immediate priorities throughout the pandemic. Those needs combined with complexities surrounding health regulations, led to the dental clinic, which had been operating since 2014, being temporarily shuttered in 2020.

Growing Homelessness in Times of the Pandemic and Addiction

Joe Mancini September 30, 2022

The Working Centre has been walking with the reality of homelessness for a long time, as the contours have been developing since the 1980s. Over the years there have been times when the issues causing homelessness are lessening, but they never fail to begin to rise again. It was only in 2014 when it seemed that homelessness was declining. There was hope that 100 units of social housing would make a decisive difference. By 2019, The Working Centre was counting more than 250 people outside the shelter system who were without housing just around downtown Kitchener. That number now exceeds 1,100 people in the shelter system or experiencing homelessness in the Region.

Serving Others at St. John’s Kitchen Garage

Megan Heck September 30, 2022

As a stay-at-home mom, Gwen Gerencser held several part-time jobs prior to St. John’s Kitchen (SJK), such as a bus driver for her children’s elementary school and a retail employee at The Beer Store. When her children began to get older, she started to look for an organization to volunteer with where her availability could be flexible, and SJK was the perfect fit.

Gwen describes volunteering at SJK as incredible, as she was able to cater her volunteer hours to her schedule, and the time she dedicated was met with immense gratitude. She wanted to provide help wherever needed, which is exactly what she did – through serving food to community members and washing dishes, a role that always needed more hands.

Reflections from Working at UA

Sarah Gutton June 30, 2021

UA has provided an opportunity for many individuals that were considered ‘too problematic’ for shelter, couples that were forced to be apart, and furry friends to all have a place to call home. While there are still rules, like don’t set fires in the building, keep the hallways and stairwells clutter free, the individuals staying at UA get the chance to make this space their own. There is no one telling them they have too many belongings, they can decorate their rooms however they want, they can leave the light on all night without having to worry about keeping someone else up, they can keep it as messy or as clean as they want, it is theirs.

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