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The operator of one of Moscow's biggest free-meal programs said Friday that the recent closing of a soup kitchen would have little impact on her operation.
Arlene Pipkin, the director of a program which serves up to 1,000 people a day, said the foreign-run Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy's service is not affected by the closing of a soup kitchen run by the Christian Democratic Union.
That soup kitchen, on Khoroshovskoye Shosse, was shut down Nov. 17 by Moscow city sanitation inspectors, who claimed that it violated standards of cleanliness. CDU and soup kitchen director Alexander Ogorodnikov told the Associated Press that his operation was closed because the city wanted a tenant who could pay a higher rent. Ogorodnikov said the sanitary violations were exaggerated.
A spokeswoman for Moscow's sanitation department was not available Friday for comment.
Pipkin's three soup kitchens operate out of existing stoloviye or cafeterias, which are reimbursed for the daily meals given to poor and elderly Muscovites. Because the soup kitchens themselves do not have leases, they are less vulnerable to closure by a landlord looking for more rent money. But the loss of any feeding program, Pipkin said, is bad news in a city where the poor's demand for food far outstrips supply.
"I suspect this is a problem because there are not a lot of government programs feeding the poor and the elderly, so whenever you lose a feeding opportunity, someone is going hungry," said Pipkin.
The stoloviye used by the Protestant group have had their own run-ins with the city over poor sanitary conditions and have been told to close down for a day to clean, but never for an extended period."Once or twice we have been closed down when they came in and said it is just too dirty. So, we closed down for one day or two to clean," said Pipkin. "Just this morning I killed three roaches on a tray."
Aside from the Protestant program, the Salvation Army, a Christian group, and Equilibre, a nonprofit humanitarian organization, operate daily feeding programs in Moscow.
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