The Salvation Army’s River of Life plans to open a soup kitchen in Westbrook sometime later this summer.

Last week, the City Council unanimously voted to grant a victualer’s license to the River of Life, and organizers said once they have their kitchen equipment set up, they will begin serving dinners one night per week at the organization’s location on Bridge Street.

Capt. Frank Nataluk, who along with his wife, Capt. Melissa Nataluk, runs the River of Life, said he hopes to have the soup kitchen up and running sometime in late July. He said it would initially be open for dinner on Monday nights, and he said he wasn’t sure if it would be open on a weekly basis, or less frequently.

Nataluk said he got the idea to start a soup kitchen when he was stationed in Bangor with his wife. He said the Salvation Army in Bangor runs a soup kitchen for lunch every Monday through Friday, and he saw how the program met the basic needs of the people there.

When they got to Westbrook, the Nataluks said they did not initially see a need for a soup kitchen in the city. But about a year ago, the River of Life began a baked goods distribution program on Mondays, during which they would distribute day-old baked goods from places like Panera Bread and Hannaford.

Seeing the number of people who came in to pick up the bread and other baked goods each Monday, the Nataluks realized people were in need of a place to get something to eat and decided to try and start a program to provide a complete meal to those people and whoever else might need it.

Linda Gordon, who has been volunteering at River of Life, will be directing the cooking at the soup kitchen. Gordon said when the Nataluks asked her to run the soup kitchen, she was happy to do so because she felt it was a great way to help out people who needed it.

“At Christmas time they asked me if I would like to coordinate something like (the soup kitchen),” said Gordon. “I was overwhelmed because you look around, and there’s a lot of people in Westbrook that could use it.”

The response from the community has been great, Gordon said. Many area churches have expressed interest in helping out with the soup kitchen once it opens, and the list of volunteers keeps growing. “We’ve had so many people sign up to volunteer already that it’s unbelievable,” Gordon said.

Gordon, who moved to Westbrook from Naples just over three years ago, said she has seen firsthand how many people in the city could benefit from a soup kitchen. “We have witnessed people sleeping under the boardwalk,” she said. “And we have witnessed people taking things from dumpsters in the area. This will at least give them at least one hot meal per week.”

While they feel it is important to provide food for the hungry, the Nataluks and Gordon said the soup kitchen will also provide a place for people who would otherwise be alone to socialize.

“A lot of people just need to be able to get out and talk to people,” said Melissa Nataluk. “They’re inside all day long, they have nothing, and they need to connect with someone outside their own little world.”

Frank Nataluk agreed with his wife that the River of Life’s soup kitchen would be more than just a place for people to simply get a meal. “We feel this will be more of a community type meal,” he said.

Gordon said she knows firsthand how important it is for people to have a safe place to be with other people. She said when she first arrived in Westbrook, she was afraid to go out of her apartment. That changed when she first went to a women’s group at the River of Life. She said there she found a place where she was treated like a member of the family, and that made all the difference in the world to her.

Now, knowing how much having a place to go helped her out, Gordon said she is anxious to do her part to help others. “If we can bring people in on Mondays, it will be so much better for them,” she said. “They helped me. And I feel so good at being able to give back.”

For more information on the River of Life and the soup kitchen, call the Salvation Army at 856-7729.