The Houston "Love by the Bowl" soup kitchen is reopening on 11th Street.
Love by the Bowl served soup and housed a craft group from October 2011 until this past May, when the 9th Street building they were operating from sold.
Organizer Bobbi Edmunds says the green house on 11th Street was bought by private investors on July 31 and will be leased to "Love by the Bowl."
She said they will run a variety of programs out of the building, including a Tuesday craft and quilters group and drop in, a Wednesday soup kitchen, and a Thursday Moms and tots group.
A ministry of the Houston Fellowship Baptist Church, "Love by the Bowl" soup kitchen was serving lunch once a week to over 80 people last fall.
Edmunds says they plan to have two sittings when they open again, with a ticket system to let people know which sitting to attend.
She says that building relationships with the soup kitchen guests is really important to them, and having two sittings with smaller groups will make it easier to connect with people.
Besides the Wednesday soup kitchen, Love by the Bowl will also run a Tuesday quilting and crafting group and drop in and a Thursday Moms and tots group and drop in.
But before any of that happens, the building will be completely renovated inside and out, Edmunds said.
They will remove the old fence, do some landscaping, build a new front deck with room for tables and a long wheelchair ramp, and put new siding on the building and paint it.
Inside they will tear down all the walls, add two bathrooms and completely rebuild and redo the kitchen.
The work is all volunteer.
"I'm pretty excited, just to reconnect with our soup kitchen guests," she said.
She added that this summer as they looked for a new location for the soup kitchen, one thing that encouraged her was seeing hints of the difference made by the soup kitchen.
"Just meeting up with the soup kitchen guests and seeing a sparkle in their eye - that was so touching," she said.
Asked if she had expected to reopen, Edmunds said she knew they would.
"I did know that we would be opening. I knew that God wasn't just going to close the door on something that he had started there," she said.
Anyone with questions or interested in donating towards the project is asked to contact Bobbi at 845-8861. Anyone interested in volunteering for building renovations can contact Clayton at 845-9330.