Almost 100 elderly people receive hot meals, juice and sweets three days a week in Masis Soup Kitchen.
65-year-old Arayik Tanajyan visits the kitchen three times a week to get freshly prepared lunch and sweets for himself and his four grandchildren, who moved to Masis from Nagorno Karabakh Kashatagh region after the conflict escalation.
"It tastes like mom’s cooking," he says, “If it were not so, I would not come here.”
He is very happy with the staff and service. "Excellent and clean" are the words with which he describes the kitchen and the staff.
With the support of the Swiss Red Cross, the Armenian Red Cross Society launched the "Food for 4 regions of Armenia" program in 2017, in Lori, Shirak, Ararat and Armavir regions, aiming to provide 80 single elderly people in each region with food packages. Beneficiaries were selected based on clearly defined needs and criteria. The work was carried out in close cooperation with the local self-government bodies, especially with the social affairs departments of the regional administrations and municipalities.
In the city of Masis in Ararat region, the program was implemented through the Soup Kitchen.
“They take so much pain for us, they cook and wash and clean so that everything be perfect, we do not have any complaints. My deepest gratitude to the Armenian Red Cross Society for such dedication and commitment.
Grandpa Arayik received a package of food from the Armenian Red Cross Society, hygiene kit for the families of his two sons, a folding bed, a heater and bedding.
"It was a great help from the Red Cross," he says, "ootherwise how would my grandchildren fit in my empty house."
He says if for some reason he is unable to come to the Kitchen, the Armenian Red Cross volunteers take his food home, inquire about his absence and his condition, and do everything they can to help and ease his difficulties.
