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FeedJusst Sooup Ministry and Rev. Dale Dunning Can’t Serve Soup at Extreme Makeover Home Edition Ranch in Lewes
Jusst Sooup Ministry can’t dish out soup at its new ranch, but the Rev. Dale Dunning won’t rest on her ladles.
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Delawareans came together last summer as 2,000 volunteers gathered to build a home and soup kitchen near Lewes for the Jusst Sooup Ministry.
That massive community effort was seen by millions on Nov. 18, 2011, when “Extreme Makeover Home Edition” profiled the ministry in a two-hour Thanksgiving television special.
That week-long build survived a hurricane, tremors from a Virginia earthquake, a mandatory evacuation and a tornado.
But the Jusst Sooup Ministry is now facing a different kind of storm. On Nov. 7, 2011, the Sussex County Board of Adjustment unanimously ruled that the Rev. Dale Dunning and her family cannot serve food at the Jusst Sooup Ranch located in Cool Spring, just west of Lewes.
The board was acting on Dunning’s application for a special use exception to allow people to be served at the site.
Several neighbors had complained at the Oct. 3 county Board of Adjustment hearing (the board’s decision was delayed until Nov. 7) about the soup kitchen. Most praised Dunning—some extensively—but many worried that a soup kitchen would attract predators, the mentally ill and crime to the area.
The decision means Dunning can still continue to cook and take soup and other food to churches, soup kitchens and shelters just as she has always done. She cannot, however, serve people in the large dining area built adjacent to the kitchen.
The tables are set, but no one will come to eat. The chairs remain empty and no one will see the jars of penny candy or the ice cream soda-style counter that’s waiting for patrons.
Dunning’s ministry will continue and she can use the sparkling new commercial kitchen built for her by the “Extreme Makeover” team, with the help of Schell Brothers, which donated the six-acre property.
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