St. Vincent DePaul Dining Hall looking to expand

WARREN, Ohio (WKBN) – The St. Vincent DePaul Dining Hall on Niles Road in Warren needs an expansion as cars line up down the street to pick up meals served out the front door.

Pre-COVID, five years ago, the dining hall, operated totally by volunteers, was serving 150 meals a day inside.

Since then, all meals have been served curbside and with the need four times greater, there’s a need for expansion.

“Times are hard and it doesn’t look like it’s going to be easy any time soon,” said Warren resident Karren Bryant.

St. Vincent DePaul CEO Darlene Jones says a major expansion is necessary.

“There’d be no possibility that we ever get 500 to 600 people through here in an hour and a half,” said Jones.

There will be three phases: first a 128-person dining room with a bigger kitchen, second a larger prep area, and third more storage. The total cost of all three phases is $3.5 million.

With a new dining room, curbside service will end.

“This is socialization for a lot of our senior citizens. The only time they have socialization is in this meal every day,” Jones said.

St. Vincent DePaul has around $400,000 already saved and early next year will start a capital campaign.

“The county at one point has also said if the city commits, we’ll match those funds. And we also have some private donors who have agreed to match those funds,” Jones said.

They hope to have the dining area and kitchen set up within the next year, the prep area in two years and the storage facility ready in three years.

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