The members of the Long Beach Lions Club have a special place in our hearts for the Long Beach Soup Kitchen. Several years ago we found out that they had been operating for all these years without a stove. They were using microwaves & hot plates. At Thanksgiving the volunteers would cook turkeys at their homes & bring them to the Soup Kitchen! One of our Long Beach Lions had access to a new commercial stove and we donated it to them.
All was well until Oct. 29, 2012, when Sandy paid a visit. As Lion Bobby Blau (Director of the Soup Kitchen) explains in the video, they lost everything in the kitchen. Then we got word that the Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF), which is the fund-raising arm of Lions Clubs International, created a Lions Sandy Relief Fund with grant money available through local Lions Clubs. We applied for the Soup Kitchen and were awarded $47,314 !
The video here shows the presentation ceremony held at the Soup Kitchen on Aug. 8, 2013. There were about 30 Lions and volunteers present to witness the happy occasion.