‘You guys are angels’: Tiny Home Takeout celebrates four-year anniversary

Four years since first opening its doors, Tiny Home Takeout is serving up more warm meals for the hungry than ever.

The food support initiative began in 2021, with 30 volunteers making fresh pizza to serve outside St. Mary’s Church at 56 Duke Street West Kitchener.

An estimated 80,000 meals were prepared, cooked, packaged, and served in 2021.

Fast forward to now, that number has more than doubled, with an estimated 190,000 meals offered in 2024.

The program shifted from pizza to calzones, while continuing to serve soup and other warm bites.

Tiny Home Takeout chef, Amy Cyr, says more than half a million meals have been provided to the community since opening.

“We just wanted to meet the need,” Cyr told CTV News. “We knew that our neighbours needed food, we knew that we could do it, so we just grew with the need.”

Bite-sized beginnings

Brian Schmalz, a member of the parish, has volunteered for the initiative since day one. Since the program got off the ground, he’s seen the volunteer group grow from 30 people to 250.

“We all are here for a reason, and that’s to serve,” Schmalz said.

Schmalz volunteers to make and bake the dough for the calzones. He says what sets Tiny Home Takeout apart from other food supports is the selection they offer each client.

“I was helping one person and she said, ‘You don’t know what that means to be asked what I would like to eat, instead of getting food and just saying this is what you’re getting,’” Schmalz said. “I thought to myself, ‘Wow, we’re touching people’s lives.’”

The program runs Tuesday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., at times making up to 600 meals per day.

“They help me out a lot and they help a lot of people out,” Daniel, a Tiny Home Takeout client told CTV News. “If it wasn’t for them, I’d be pretty hungry at times.”

Looking to the future

St. Mary’s Church recently installed a commercial kitchen to help accommodate the need. But organizers worry demand is also growing at a troubling pace.

“The reality is four years into it we have quadrupled the amount of people that have shown up on a nightly basis, which just means that food insecurity is on the rise,” Cyr said.

Looking to the future, the group aims to pump out even more meals than they are now, but eventually hopes their services won’t be needed at all.

“I hope in the future that the need goes down, Schmalz said. “I would like to see the numbers drop. That means that there are less and less people that are in rough shape.”

In the meantime, hundreds of Tiny Home Takeout volunteers are working to help as many people as they can.

“Keep up the good work,” Daniel said to the group. “You guys are angels. I appreciate the good work you’re doing and I’m sure a lot of people do.”

Giving back

The growth of the program is dependent on the generosity of volunteers. Although many of Tiny Home Takeout’s volunteers have been helping for years, there is always the need for an extra set of hands.

Volunteers typically work in four-hour shifts in a variety of roles from food preparation, to baking, cleaning and serving.

Tiny Home Takeout has also welcomed students into the kitchen as an educational experience, giving them a taste of what it’s like to help people in need.