‘Grab a bite, give if you can’: Tiny Home Takeout celebrates three-year anniversary

Tiny Home Takeout started with just 30 volunteers, dedicated to providing fresh, hot food to people in Waterloo Region.

Friday, their tiny home celebrates three years of operation after growing to 170 dedicated volunteers and serving hundreds of thousands of portions of food.

Tiny Home Takeout runs on the hard work of their volunteers and gracious donations from individuals and businesses in the community.

In 2021, Tiny Home Takeout served 92,000 portions of food out of the door of their downtown Kitchener location in the St. Mary Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows Roman Catholic Church parking lot.

Fast forward three years and they’ve more than doubled their yearly output. In 2023, they served nearly 187,000 portions of food, including bread, pizzas, calzones, and sandwiches.  

Nada Offak has volunteered with Tiny Home Takeout since day one with her two daughters.

Offak said the organization is trying to break the stigma of their food being for any specific group of people.

“We’re trying to feed everybody,” said Offak. “We’re trying to break the thought of ‘if we come there, we’re taking away from the homeless people’. That’s not the case. Our food is for everyone.”

Their motto is ‘grab a bite and give if you can’, and while their goal is to feed people who can’t make ends meet, they rely on donations from those who can.  

They’ve also expanded their offering by adding two satellite locations. The first is at the Victoria Hills Community Centre at 10 Chopin Drive which is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The second is at the Holy Trinity Church at 237 Wilson Avenue on Wednesdays and Fridays between 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

They will be hosting a special celebration at their downtown Kitchener location Friday for their anniversary, serving up vegan tikka masala and some treats according to Offak.

You can learn more about how you can get involved here.