OXFORD – Not even a pandemic can stop St. Paul's Soup and Sandwich, a soup kitchen out of Oxford, from serving warm meals to the community. The organization has prepared 9,252 warm meals since the beginning of March.

Three years ago, after the prior soup kitchen located within St. Paul's Episcopal Church ended, volunteers came together to establish St. Paul's Soup and Sandwich. The soup kitchen began by serving about 30 people on Monday nights for dinner. Since then, it has expanded to serve up to 160 people a day.

"We've slowly over the years served more and more people and when the pandemic hit we really expanded. There was a big increase in the need," said St. Paul's Soup and Sandwich Coordinator Pam Chesebro

Lunch and dinner, prepared by the soup kitchen volunteers, are delivered twice a week on Monday and Thursday. The organization has partnered with Catholic Charities of Chenango County, who delivers the lunches to the surrounding community. The majority of dinners are picked up from the soup kitchen, however two volunteers from the church also deliver about 30 dinners a night.

Catholic Charities has delivered 4,653 meals since the start of the pandemic.