The Hay River Soup Kitchen has received an influx of new interest in serving on its board.
In all, about 15 people attended the organization's annual general meeting on March 3.
Chris Aitken was returned as president and Mattie McNeill will continue as treasurer.
Among the newcomers is Peter Magill, who is now the Soup Kitchen's vice-president.
Tim Tregidgo, another newcomer, is the secretary.
The regular board members are Dian Papineau-Magill, Michele Stephens, Tamara Makepeace-Fabian, Mark Lundbek and Wendy Dumas.
Aitken said the annual general meeting indicated new interest in the organization, adding that it was the result of a membership drive.
"We need more active board members because there were just a couple of people that were doing a lot of work and they were getting very tired," he said. "So we needed people that would be more helpful."
Magill, the new vice-president, said the Soup Kitchen is a very needed service in the community.
"If you can remove one concern from somebody's life, like looking for food, then they can deal with other problems in their life," he said. "It's the least we can do as a community to help these people have a leg up in life."
Aitken said a goal for the coming year is to find more volunteers for the Soup Kitchen.
"We need to build up our volunteer base," he said. "We don't have many."
Aitken pointed to a couple of issues the new board will have to discuss.
One issue is that some board members were, as in previous years, elected at the annual general meeting for two years and some for one year.
"Since that meeting, the board members are a little concerned about that practice," said Aitken. "So at our first board meeting we are going to discuss that and they felt that maybe the executive should be on for two years and the regular board members should be on one year. So that hasn't been decided."
The board meeting will be held on April 3.
Aitken, who was acclaimed for a two-year term, said the board will discuss whether it has the power to make term changes or if it has to be done at an annual general meeting.