It provides relief to families and individuals in need, but lately the Open Door Soup Kitchen in Glens Falls has been the one with its hand out. As our North Country Bureau Reporter Matt Hunter explains, for the soup kitchen's board of director's, the search to find a new home has lasted much longer than expected.

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GLENS FALLS, N.Y. – Twice a day, the doors open and in comes the crowd. It's been like this for the past 15 years, since the Open Door Soup Kitchen first moved into the Madden Hotel on South Street.

"Chicken or fish?" head chef Linda Combs asks diners on Thursday.

In July, the city and Glens Falls National Bank reached an agreement to purchase and eventually demolish the hotel, giving the soup kitchen until the end of September to move out.

The Board of Directors thought they had a deal in place to move into the former Home for Aged Women on Warren Street, until the city planning board shot it down because of opposition from neighbors.

"We were not expecting to be turned down for the 178 Warren Street property,” said Marybeth Mitcham, the assistant to the soup kitchen’s executive director. “Things had looked like they'd be working out."

Stuck with nowhere to go, the city worked out a deal to allow the soup kitchen to stay put through October.

Since then, the Open Door's board of directors has identified a new building they'd like to purchase, not far from their current site. The proposed new location, a former pizza shop at the corner of Walnut and Lawrence streets, is about a half-mile from downtown Glens Falls. While it may seem like a good fit, the proposal still must be approved by the city planning board later this month.

"I don't think it would be a big deal," said Lauren Gabay, who lives a few blocks from the potential new location at 47 Lawrence Street.

"It would be good for Glens Falls, period,” said Mike Tucker, who lives directly across the street from the former pizza shop. “Over there on South Street, there's a lot of businesses over there and everybody's giving them [Open Door] a hard time. It's good to put it somewhere where it's easier access for people in Glens Falls.”

While some in the neighborhood may welcome the soup kitchen's arrival, others want it kept out.

Poopie’s Restaurant owner Jerry DiManno has made that clear with a sign he posted in front of his business that reads “Keep South Kitchen Out of 1st Ward!”

"You're going to be getting more foot traffic, mostly, and people hanging around, smoking cigarettes, throwing them in the road,” DiManno said. “Just that type of clientele for the soup kitchen, it's not a good thing."

Ultimately, the decision lies in the hands of city officials, a decision soup kitchen staff hope will be weighed from both sides.

"We do understand the concerns and we just hope people can open their hearts to being able to do what we've been doing here, just somewhere else," Mitcham said.