WILLIMANTIC, Conn. (WTNH) — With temperatures well below freezing Sunday it wasn’t safe to spend time much outside. The frigid weather was especially dangerous for the homeless.
Suvanna Zientek stopped by the Covenant Soup Kitchen in Willimantic to warm up on Sunday morning. After being outside for just a short time, she needed to spend some time inside.
“I’m getting kind of used to it now with how the weather’s been the past few days,” she said. “But it’s really, really windy. The wind chill is what makes it worse.”
She wasn’t alone at the soup kitchen. Several people relaxed inside, happy to be out of the cold. Volunteers who spent part of their day there were too, since being outdoors was uncomfortable – and unsafe.
“[It’s] freezing cold, especially on the fingers,” said Joan Doiron, a volunteer. “It felt like you had tears coming out that wanted to freeze up, just because of the wind and the cold.”
The soup kitchen coordinated with Windham shelters to find out when they would be closed – so it could stay open. It extended its hours for Sunday so no one would have to be out in the cold.
“We need to protect our community, every single one of them, so we want to make sure that we are open as many hours as we can,” said Kimberly Clark, Interim Executive Director of the soup kitchen.
Staff and volunteers made lunch for those inside warming up – and it wasn’t just the people that needed to be kept warm.
“We’re dealing with some possibly frozen pipes right now so hopefully that will be remedied soon,” said Clark.
