Soup kitchen gets high marks on health inspection

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- The latest city health inspections are out; and among more than three dozen restaurants and delis in New Haven, there's a surprise near the top of the list.

Its sparkling kitchen and well-trained staff earned the kitchen a 92 on its last city health inspection. That's not the highest score, but it is well above many other places: places where customers actually pay for the food.

"We provide lunch here four days a week," said David O'Sullivan, Community Soup Kitchen. "We also work with four other sites that provide breakfast. We work with fellowship place and give them bagged lunches four days a week."

Yes, the kitchen belongs to the Community Soup Kitchen at Christ Church Episcopal, and about a year ago, a generous donation let them gut and renovate the kitchen. That helped them earn that 92, because sometimes kitchens get points off for rusty shelves and worn cutting boards. So a new kitchen helped make theirs a cleaner kitchen.

For some perspective, there's a hotel just up the street where people pay a lot of money to stay. Their kitchen facilities passed, but not with a 92 like the soup kitchen got. And over at Yale, the has dining halls also passed inspection, but again, not with as high a grade as the soup kitchen.

"A little point of pride there for you," asked News 8's Kent Pierce.

"Pride, but also we have to recognize how lucky we are to have received the donation that made the renovation of the kitchen possible," said O'Sullivan.

And that helps make it possible to give away nearly 59,000 meals a year.

If you want to help them continue, they have a fundraiser this month at restaurants around New Haven. Buy a paper bowl for $5, write your name on it, and you've paid for someone else to eat the food from the gleaming facilities of the Community Soup Kitchen.