The Warm Welcome kitchen here in Estevan has been serving up warm meals throughout the winter months.

Those meals are free, with different warm dishes served up to help those who might need help with food costs.

The program normally runs from October to April, but this year they're expanding to yet another month, running for the entirety of May.

Chairperson Wendy Godfrey says they came to a decision for that after finding they had the demand and funds to do so.

"We're still getting a lot of people coming out, we've had upwards of 90 people sometimes at our meal. We look at our resources and we talk to our kitchen cooks and our volunteers, and they all agreed once we knew that we had enough money to support it for another month they all agreed that they'd like to keep going for another month. We think it's needed in the community, so we're just going to do it."

Warm meals in the month of May are thanks to the many sponsorships they've received, helping cover costs even as food prices rise.

"We've had some great donations. We had a good donation of meat and that kind of thing, Sobeys has really helped us out in that regard," said Godfrey, "So when your meat is paid for it makes the rest of the meal quite a bit cheaper, despite the rising food costs. We've also had donations from several different places that help out as well."

The volunteers have come up with a few new meals for the month, including a chicken and turkey lasagna, among other meals.

Godfrey says that serving the community is a passion for the volunteers and that offering this extra month has them excited.

"We're excited that we're able to offer that to the community, it's great when you can always get a little more than you thought you could. It feels good helping out and every time you can do more, we do more because it's good for them and it makes us feel good as well."

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