Homelessness Hunger Strike Relay - Day 3

http://www.2010homelessness.ca/

Hmmm. Got pretty hungry today. Also did a lot of work. And somebody on the bus had some fine smelling food! humph.

Here's some thoughts on food and homelessness.
When Vikki and I were trying to vision what the Vancouver Catholic Worker would look like, we were clear that we didn't need to be a 'soup kitchen' because there's a large amount of services that provide food in our neighbourhood. We felt that shelter, in the form of a real home and not a bed between 10 pm and 6 am, was what was needed most. So we have a house of hospitality where people come to live with us.

But let's think again about the food situation down here. There is a schedule of free meals posted on sandwich boards around the Downtown Eastside so people who aren't in the know will know where to go. Because whether you are the working poor, on welfare or completely outside the system, if you've paid for your shelter for the day, week, month - there ain't much left for anything else, even food. And if you haven't paid for your shelter because you don't have one, even if you've got some cash, you've got no where to store food. Or where you might store it you can't cook it or you have to compete with the rodent's and the insects to keep it.

So there's coffee and muffins, some breakfasts, some soup lines, some sit down meals, and piles and piles of bread. Usually you have to line up, sometimes you have to participate in some sort of religious program or at least listen to someone offer their wisdom. And you have to eat on their schedule. Consider that you might be dealing with some bureaucracy in your life, like welfare, or health care, or the police, or the courts, or some other government agency, or you might be sick or have a disability, or trying to find a job. If you can't organize your life around when food might be available, or no one can go and get some for you, you're going to be hungry. Now you might have been able to stock up on some of that bread that's available, but really people, bread? Don't get me wrong, a lot of great people are trying to provide some solutions to people's needs and often doing it without a lot of monetary or organizational support. But let's be clear. This is not a healthy lifestyle, there are serious nutritional deficiencies and that contributes in an unending cyclical fashion to the 'homelessness problem'.

People are whole - they are multi-faceted, multi-talented and their needs are equally complex. That is true for you and me and it's true for the people who sleep in the alcove of the restaurant behind our house.