There was one less hot meal available to Bradford’s hungry residents on Wednesday after a water line break caused the temporary closure of a local soup kitchen. 

Meanwhile, officials were kept busy responding to another break on the opposite side of town — at Floyd C. Fretz Middle School, where the break caused the relocation of a boys basketball game.

At the Friendship Table on East Corydon Street, the soup kitchen was forced to close its doors after frozen pipes caused a mid-day water line break, according to chairman Barb Shufran, who said the incident may be cold weather related. The incident was handled internally by a Friendship Table board member in charge of building and grounds.

Shufran said service at the soup kitchen, which serves a hot meal daily to between 80 and 100 locals, is expected to resume serving from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. today. 

Regular clients were notified by Friendship Table staff of the service interruption and directed to food pantries in the area. 

Destinations Bradford, a local food pantry and social service hub, reported no increase in foot traffic on Wednesday. 

Meanwhile, the cold weather also caused a city water line to rupture at Fretz around 3 p.m. Wednesday.

The pipe break resulted in the relocation of a night time boys basketball game but would not prompt a school closure today, according to Bradford Area School District Superintendent Katharine Pude.

“The water company (and water authority) responded very promptly and the line has been fixed,” Pude said when contacted by The Era on Wednesday evening.

“There will be no change in our schedule tomorrow (Thursday). A boys basketball game needed to be played at School Street (Elementary School) this afternoon (Wednesday), but that was the only event that was affected,” Pude said. 

Bradford Area School District officials said the broken water line had been successfully repaired as of 7:20 p.m. Wednesday. 

(Era reporter Ruth Bogdan contributed to this report.)