A Little Bit About Us

Our Beginnings

The Soup Kitchen, located on the lower level of George Street United Church, opened at the Jimmy Pratt Memorial Outreach Centre with financial support from Kathleen Pratt LeGrow. Since its inception in January 2002, the Centre has served over 120,000 meals.

Addressing the Need

Thanks to the patronage of our corporate sponsors, fundraising efforts, volunteers, and government program support, the Jimmy Pratt Centre offers three main programs.

Other Programs

As part of our regular support, we continue to offer a Computer Access Program based on information gathered in a comprehensive needs analysis. Many patrons suggested that this service would be a valuable addition by providing Internet access for job searching and email communication.

Our Values

The Jimmy Pratt Memorial Outreach Centre is an incorporated body and registered charity dedicated to the support of individuals needing assistance to manage the challenges of everyday life. We are committed to offering a welcoming environment based on realistic values. You can read more about our vision and mission here.

Programs

The Centre prides itself on developing programs that meet current and future needs. All programming is geared to identified needs and offers flexibility for ongoing positive change.

Outreach

The Jimmy Pratt Centre offers several outreach community goals and objectives centered around identified needs. We reach out to all facets of the community to provide help in many aspects of everyday life. Whether it is for seniors or those facing barriers to everyday life, we offer a helping hand.

Events

To energize innovative fundraisers, the Board of the Jimmy Pratt Centre has been instrumental in coordinating events such as Hot Soup and Cool Jazz, as well as several other significant fundraisers, such as corporate dinners, concerts, and rentals.

Who are we?

The Jimmy Pratt Memorial Outreach Centre Inc. was established in January 2002 and is a provincially incorporated not-for-profit organization and a registered charity through the Canada Revenue Agency. We have an active Board of Directors, and our day-to-day operations are managed entirely by volunteers with two part-time staff.

Our Origins

The Soup Kitchen, located on the lower level of the former George Street United Church, opened at the Jimmy Pratt Memorial Outreach Centre with financial support from Kathleen Pratt Legrow. Since its inception in January 2002, the Centre has served over 200,000 meals.

Addressing the Need

Thanks to the patronage of our corporate sponsors, fundraising efforts, volunteers, and government program support, the Jimmy Pratt Centre offers three main programs:

The Cenovus Breakfast Program provides a “hot breakfast” every Monday morning from 8:30 AM to 10:00 AM
Our Seniors Inclusion Program every Wednesday offers seniors a fitness program, a meal, and some social time at 11:00 AM. *Note that our Seniors Inclusion Program is paused for the Summer and will be recommencing September 2025.
Our signature Friday Soup Kitchen provides a hot lunch every Friday from 10:30 AM to 12 PM.

Find out More

We plan our programs and services based on identified needs. During COVID-19, we developed a takeaway service, providing meals throughout the pandemic. This allowed our patrons to continue receiving meals and other services on a take away basis.

Our Corporate Sponsors

One of the significant components of successful operations and programming at the Jimmy Pratt Centre continues to be our sponsors. Volunteers who originate from these sponsors work at the Centre weekly and form the nucleus of our overall volunteer program operations and management.

Financial support remains essential to our work. Our sponsors provide both volunteers and financial support to ensure that the Centre can meet the various goals and objectives that continue to give the formula for success.