San Francisco condo building tries to stop nuns' soup kitchen from moving in
SAN FRANCISCO -- There’s more trouble for a pair of well-meaning nuns whose soup kitchen operation is being evicted in San Francisco, CBS station KPIX-TV reports.
For the past several years, the sisters of the Fraternite Notre Dame from France have run their soup kitchen from San Francisco’s Tenderloin District.
But the rent is driving them out.
After multimillionaire Tony Robbins stepped in to buy them a new spot -- a $750,000 condo in the Mission District -- the sisters thought their prayers were answered.
“When we give the food, we try to give with love,” Sister Marie Benedicte said. “We try to love them, and we try to make the soup kitchen like a family.”
But residents in the soup kitchen’s new building are trying to block the nuns from relocating.
The lawyer for the homeowners association wouldn’t comment to KPIX-TV.
However, he filed a letter with the city Planning Department saying feeding the homeless is a wonderful thing but that the Mission condo “is not the appropriate location.”
The letter also says lines for a soup kitchen could hurt future development.
The building already has some issues with some residents complaining of drug deals going on in broad daylight.
The nuns believe their presence will help.
The Planning Commission will have a hearing on the new soup kitchen location in January. The nuns will be there, hoping to change the residents’ hearts and minds.
“I will ask them to be compassionate,” Sister Marie said. “I know it’s not so easy to live when you have a lot of encampment on the street, but we need to work together to help those people to get out of the street.”
