New London — The city’s soup kitchen will celebrate 30 years as a nonprofit organization later this month — a feat that volunteers say was made possible because of the strong community support it has enjoyed throughout the years.

The New London Community Meal Center — originally known as The Health and Welfare Community Ministries — serves lunch and dinner five days a week along with a Sunday dinner at its 12 Montauk Ave. location.

That's more than 75,000 meals a year and up to 400 meals on some days.  

Those are astonishing figures, considering the soup kitchen’s humble origins in the basement of the Mount Olive Seventh Day Adventist Church on Linden Street.

It’s where Annie Laurie Bellinger and her friend Lucille Smith, seeing the need growing in the city, started feeding the hungry, according to Judy Mann, who took over soup kitchen operations after Bellinger’s death in 1999.

Bellinger as far back as the 1940s collected canned goods and distributed gift baskets to the needy.

As the need continued to grow, so did the operation — first to a storefront at 77 Truman St. and later to its present location at 12 Montauk Ave., what some may remember as the former Nelsco New London Floor Fixture Co.

Mann, who started volunteering when Bellinger was still preparing meals at her own home, recalls Bellinger getting up at 4 a.m. to cook and using her own Social Security money and her husband’s pension to secure enough food to meet demand.

The reason she and others got involved was simple: “How could you let people starve? There are people on the streets who had nowhere to go,” she said.

“It’s amazing, but it all gets done. We have to depend on what people give us but, for the most part, the meals are fabulous,” Mann said.

A regular schedule of different groups comes in on a rotating basis to help prep, serve the meals and help clean up.

The volunteer base — more than 340 strong — is a host of faith-based and civic organizations and private donors.

“The volunteers year after year have been the engine that keeps the meal center going,” said Chester Fairlie, a co-chairman of the anniversary event and member of the board of directors. “Volunteers are a vital and indispensable part of the workforce in the daily operation of the soup kitchen. It’s a real passion behind the people who help meet the need.”

The center has faced some financial struggles.

As recently as last year, the center found itself with just funds enough to run for two months following a decline in donations.

The response to the crisis was an outpouring of support from the community.

"We avoided the financial crisis, and the community support has just been heartwarming and substantial,” Fairlie said.

The center runs on an operating budget of about $200,000 a year and depends on a mix of grants and donations.

Kitchen manager Peta Madry, one of two paid employees, said funds are mostly used for things like electricity, repairs to keep the center heated and cooled, insurance and supplemental food supplies.

The majority of food comes from the Gemma E. Moran United Way Food Center, along with a host of other organizations.

As an example, Madry said, FRESH New London, Grasso Technical High School in Groton and St. Luke Lutheran Church in Gales Ferry all have supplied vegetables to the soup kitchen.

The soup kitchen sees its heaviest use at the end of the month, when Madry said people are just plain out of money.

While there are many homeless who depend on the free meals, there is also a mix of people, including families, who are down on their luck.

“There is still food insecurity in New London,” Fairlie said. “This has been a problem that has had to be addressed for more than 30 years.”

Fairlie said there is a strong connection between food insecurity and poor health.

“A service like this provides wholesome, low-fat, low-sugar food and helps also to improve the health of the patrons," Fairlie said.

A 30th-year celebration will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. on Sept. 24 at the New London Elks Lodge located at 81 Washington St. The Elks have donated the use of the banquet hall.

Tickets are $30, and all proceeds benefit the soup kitchen.

 There will be hors d'oeuvres, music and a cash bar. There also will be a presentation on “volunteers, nonprofits and community services” by community leaders, a tribute of sorts to the volunteerism that exists in the region.

For more information, contact Fairlie at (860) 501-2131 or Madry at (860) 444-7745.

Donations also are appreciated.

g.smith@theday.com