FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Caritas to stay closed for summer, restructure, open kitchen to food entrepreneurs
Greater partnership seen as way to safeguard center’s mission and commitment to Binghamton
Memphis, TN – The pandemic-related closure of Caritas Community Center and Café, which meant layoffs for all staff, will remain in effect through the summer to allow the nonprofit’s board to restructure Caritas in hopes of putting it on a more sustainable path in delivering on its mission to serve Binghamton.
Caritas’ kitchen will be converted from a café to a community resource for food entrepreneurs, and board chair Megan Morris said Caritas will focus on partnering with other organizations’ existing programs.
“We want to build new neighborhood partnerships that deliver more benefit to members of the Binghamton community,” Morris said. “Caritas has other programs that we look forward to restarting and new ones as soon as we’re able.”
Morris said she was proud of the way Caritas served food in the early days of the pandemic, and she credits outgoing development director Kristin McMillin and her husband Spencer McMillin for helming Caritas’ Feeding the Front Lines campaign, which produced hundreds of free meals for people on the front lines of care, and for people in the neighborhood.
“Kristin and Spencer McMillin worked so hard on that effort and to bring their vision to the café at Caritas,” Morris said. “We know they will continue to do great things in Memphis.”
Morris said she was also grateful for the hard work that Brad Watkins and the rest of the staff put into what Caritas offered.
“We don’t know exactly what the future holds, but we’re going to take the time to find the right mix of offerings and the right partnerships to sustainably carry our mission forward,” she said. “Caritas will be back with a renewed focus on serving the community of Binghamton soon.”
Contact
Marvin Stockwell
901-734-8766
marvinstockwell@gmail.com