St. Catharines Greek restaurant whips up New Year’s meals for people in need

A group of volunteers in St. Catharines say they’ve found the perfect way to start the new year.

They were standing over hot stoves Thursday and were getting deliveries ready to reach out to people who are homeless, with a hot meal for the hungry.

This has been going on for five years now and has become an important New Year’s tradition in Niagara: a local Greek restaurant and its volunteers filling a need in the community.

On the menu for New Year’s Day: a hearty stew made with heart-warming ingredients.

“There’s fresh pork, fresh chicken, fresh vegetables and a lot of love when you cook it,” said Pierre Kountouris, the owner of Joe Feta’s Greek Village.

The restaurant was packed with volunteers and three chefs whipping up a dinner that’s meant to go a long way for a lot of people.

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“For 11 hundred people — they get to have one meal a day, so all three of us put our heart and soul into it, to make sure they have one good meal and really enjoy it, and I hope they like this meal that we made for them,” said one of those three chefs.

The idea started around five years ago, when Joe Feta’s began delivering individual meals to the homeless at Christmas, filling in where they saw a need that wasn’t being met by governments.

“We know that it’s at the forefront — politically, at the provincial level, the municipal level, the regional level and the federal level, but that still doesn’t feed people that are in need,” said Kountouris.

“What we do and what our group does and all our volunteers and suppliers, is provide that immediate need, and we get food to people. A lot of people are going through some very tough times and we’ve been around close to 60 years and I think times are going to get tougher before they get better.”

They say they switched from Christmas to New Year’s, because there aren’t as many programs on New Year’s Day to feed the hungry and it’s been growing ever since.

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“Let’s do it New Year’s Day to start the year off right, at least we know somebody’s going to get a hot meal today,” said Rob Hubbert, who organized the event. “People are, generally — they’re hungry and we need to reach out and get that food out.”

Volunteers say it’s a great way to start the year, with one saying, “if we’re blessed to have everything — food, shelter — why wouldn’t you want to give back, right?”

Another volunteer said, “You see these homeless people that have less and you just want to provide a healthy meal, something they can eat, a warm meal that they can really appreciate.”

As well as individual meals, they’re now providing dinners for shelters and churches throughout the region, including St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and Welland.

“You go out and they say ‘oh, is this from Joe Feta’s?’ and we say ‘yeah, it’s from Joe Feta’s’ and it’s so good to see somebody smile, where our world’s going today,” said Hubbert.”

They also say there are a lot of young people who’ve been getting involved in the New Year’s Day dinner program, leaving them with a legacy of reaching out to their community.

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