Nanaimo’s community meals program to help feed people experiencing homelessness will be extended and city staff will look at ways to make the program permanent.
The motion to extend the program and call for a city staff report on a more permanent plan was tabled by Coun. Hilary Eastmure at a city council meeting Monday, July 10. Council’s discussion followed presentations by Gordon Fuller, president of the Nanaimo 7-10 Club Society, and Bern Muller, Salvation Army New Hope Centre director.
The program is operated as a partnership, with the Salvation Army in charge of meals preparation and the Nanaimo 7-10 Club carrying out distribution of hot breakfasts and bagged lunches under a contract from the city that expired Sunday, July 9.
Eastmure proposed a four-month extension to the program. She also asked that correspondence be sent to B.C.’s minister of social development and poverty reduction and minister of housing to request ongoing provincial funding support for a permanent meals program for Nanaimo’s unhoused population and that a staff report on funding options for a permanent meals program be created for council consideration during 2024 budget discussions.
“This, just at a gut level to me, felt like a program that I wasn’t comfortable just seeing end without us having a discussion about it as a council,” Eastmure said. “This was a program that was council-supported and at this time … there aren’t many other accessible daily meal programs that people have access to.”
Fuller said the partnership delivers about 3,500 breakfasts each month, which are distributed at the showers at Caledonia Park on Wall Street and at the overdose prevention site at the corner of Albert and Dunsmuir streets. He said there are few organizations running regular meal programs supplying food to unhoused people.
“When the 7-10 Club started it did a lot with families, but that dropped off as the school board picked that up, so while some people end up getting served more, other people will get shoved aside and there’s just not a lot out there and reputable organizations being able to serve them is key,” Fuller said.
He added that people who don’t receive meals will employ other means to obtain food.
“If people can’t get fed, they’re going to get fed somehow and it’s usually not legally,” Fuller said. “We’ve been told that to our face. I’ve had that told to me. If we can’t get something to eat, we have to get it somewhere and that’s not necessarily in a good way.”
Fuller mentioned that he’s seeing more seniors coming out to get meals at both distribution sites, many housed, but some living on the streets and in campers.
“That’s part of the homeless population we don’t really get to know a lot about,” he said.
Muller said the Salvation Army has provided food to those in need for 130 years in Nanaimo and continues to provide about 100 hot meals per day, prepared to Foodsafe standards from the kitchen in the former White Spot restaurant on Terminal Avenue at a cost of about $10,000 per month.
“[The Salvation Army] feeds people because people are hungry, but they also feed people because when people … are not preoccupied with their need for nutrition, then they are able to be receptive to other things…” he said. “People are not happy where they are on the street and when they are ready, the Salvation Army is there to meet them and to help them in the transition to improve their situation.”
Eastmure suggested the contract extension could be paid for from $230,000 set aside to fund a daytime resource centre, which has not been created. Dale Lindsay said the current program, which was started in 2022, costs about $35,000 per month to operate. The motion was carried unanimously.
A separate meal program for people experiencing homelessness in Nanaimo is Stone Soup, operated by the Wisteria Community Association.
Tanya Hiltz, president of the association, told the News Bulletin that Stone Soup, now operating from 308 Fitzwilliam St., has provided food to unhoused people since 2017 and delivers cold lunches to several locations in Nanaimo, including, recently added, Pioneer Cemetery Park.
Hiltz said funding for the soup kitchen comes from donations and a current grant from the United Way, and food comes from sources such as Loaves and Fishes Community Food Bank.
“What they get is a fresh salad, sandwich, dessert, fruit, coffee and water,” Hiltz said. “I think we’re doing pretty darn good for the small donations we get. We keep them well-fed and when winter strikes, it’s going to be right back again to hot meals … When they’re putting money out they should be dividing it equally … between everybody that feeds them. Just one program, divided fairly.”
READ ALSO: Salvation Army finds interim solution for meal program in Nanaimo
READ ALSO: Nanaimo’s Stone Soup opens new kitchen to make hot meals for people experiencing homelessness
chris.bush@nanaimobulletin.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter