WINNIPEG -- A Winnipeg non-profit has reopened its doors to the community as restrictions across the province are eased, and organizers say they are thankful for local restaurants and organizations who stepped up and made sure the community had a hot lunch every day.

On Thursday, the local non-profit 1JustCity reopened its drop-in services to provide members of the community a space to be social. The centre has followed physical distancing guidelines and has spaced tables and chairs apart.

Josh Ward, the community facilitator at 1JustCity's West End outreach site, said their drop-in centre would normally see about 75 people a day come by for food and groceries.

"When COVID struck, like everybody, we knew we couldn't have all those people in the building like we normally do, so we scrambled," said Ward, who added the organizers had to pare down services, but decided to keep the grocery and food pick-up running.

"We learned quickly that was extremely important because we started seeing double the amount of people than normal coming to our door every day for food supports."

Ward said three organizations - The Tallman Family, Trans Canada Brewing Company and Fionn MacCool's – stepped up to make sure residents got a hot lunch every day.

The not-for-profit said the three groups have donated more than 30,000 meals to date.

Ward said the pandemic was difficult on some of Winnipeg's vulnerable population experiencing homelessness.

"When your living on the edge already, and all of a sudden you hear this pandemic is coming, and people are getting sick and everywhere is closing their doors – all the places you normally go to for support are closing their doors, I mean that is a whole other level of fear," Ward said.

"To be able to stay open thanks to the support of so many generous people and keep offering that food support, it at least offered some kind of security and consistency for people who needed that."

He said people who would like to donate non-perishable food or help support the non-profit can find more information on the organization's website.

-with files from CTV's Jamie Dowsett