MEXICO — The Good Samaritan Soup Kitchen will reopen Tuesday as a new department of the town.

The Select Board voted May 6 to make the change.

The soup kitchen, based in the downstairs meeting room at the Town Office, shut down recently after operating for 18 months and providing hot meals, delivery service to local shut-in seniors and outreach resources. The closure, given without explanation, prompted more than 50 people to attend the May 6 meeting.

Melinda Stewart, a candidate for Select Board, said the soup kitchen has been good for the community, but there has been a lot of negative posts on social media.

She said she went to the Town Office on April 25 and asked to see the termination for the Mexico Good Samaritan 501(c), an IRS designation granting tax-exempt status to nonprofit organizations.

“I was told there was no letter and that the soup kitchen was conducting business through the town’s 501(c). I explained that the town of Mexico cannot be a 501(c) or 501(c)(3). … It’s not possible because the town is not a nonprofit and (it) never should have been allowed to fall under the town of Mexico.

“It has been made public that the Good Samaritan Soup Kitchen is a 501(c) and is allowed to accept grants and donations. That is not true. The Good Samaritan Soup Kitchen is not registered as a nonprofit with the state of Maine,” Stewart said.

She said her problem is not with the soup kitchen but the way the town conducted business with the soup kitchen. “This is a huge liability for the town and should never have been allowed and another example of town leadership not doing their due diligence.”

Stewart said checks made out to Good Samaritan were cashed through the town of Mexico. “I believe MMA legal should be contacted and I think the board should update us at the next meeting.”

Former Selectman Cliff Stewart asked, “What is the relationship between the town of Mexico and the Good Samaritan Soup Kitchen (which) has led to them discontinuing operations, closing their doors and looking for a new location? The citizens need answers.”

After public comments, Selectman Peter Merrill read the following prepared statement: “Given the board voted in October of 2023 to open a food pantry that quickly morphed into a soup kitchen during the flood of 2023, I make a motion that perhaps should have been made in December of 2023, but we were too wrapped up in helping our citizens … I make a motion to open our soup kitchen, effective Tuesday, May 13, 2025, as a department of the town of Mexico. Requirements for this is that a food safety course be taken. No kitchen inspection is required as there is no food being sold. This will allow the kitchen to be under the town insurance at no additional cost.”

He added that all funds will be deposited in the soup kitchen account, and receipts provided for payments, as in any other department.

Merrill said the motion has been put before the Maine Municipal Association and “so far everything we’ve done has been on the up and up with them.”

He said that when the soup kitchen was formed under the town, “we didn’t get into a lot of detail, which we should have done. But there’s been no misappropriation of their money. It’s been handled legally, and that’s been run by the Maine Municipal Association.”

Voting in favor of the motion were Chairperson Randall Canwell, Tom Hines and Merrill. TJ Williams was absent.

Board member Richie Philbrick abstained from voting because he wished to further discuss the issue and hold off on the vote until their May 20 meeting.

Canwell made another motion, which was approved, to add a separate article to the June 10 annual town meeting warrant to raise and appropriate $10,000 to oversee the operation of the Mexico Good Samaritan Soup Kitchen. Philbrick abstained on this vote as well.

Michelle Robinson Williams, who started the soup kitchen, was at the meeting but did not address the issue.

However, following the meeting she posted on Facebook that the town and Good Samaritan meant no malicious intent by feeding people and extending what they were doing. “Money has always been transparent and accounted for through a town account labeled soup kitchen, but some people want to question it. By no means are there any taxpayer dollars being used to run this, unless they have donated. Thank you to those who continue to support and let’s not have this bump in the road affect the good being done.”