Bringing warmth to homeless

KELLEY KORBIN

The North Shore's Har El congregation is located in one of Canada's most affluent communities, but even here there is poverty among the riches.

Louise Warner, community liaison officer with the North Shore Lookout Shelter, told the Independent that there are more than 100 homeless people in the community. She called it an "invisible issue" and expressed a wish that people on the North Shore would "stop hiding their heads" from this crisis.

The Lookout Shelter is a government facility that houses 25 people on a daily basis and provides three meals a day to these residents, as well as to another 25 people who are in transitional housing. Unfortunately, while the shelter has an excellent industrial kitchen, it does not have the funds to hire a cook. The meals it provides all come pre-packaged and are then reheated before they are served.

That's where Har El comes in. The congregation's tikkun olam committee was initiated by Rabbi Shmuel Birnham, who said he believes that, in order for ritual to be meaningful, it must be combined with social action. "If we are to be a light to the nations, part of what we have to do is to go out from the synagogues and participate in transforming the world," he observed.

To this end, for the past couple of years, the committee has been feeding the homeless at the Lookout Shelter. One Sunday a month, about a dozen volunteers from Har El go to the shelter, where they prepare, serve and clean up a three-course meal for about 50 of the North Shore's homeless – quite a change from the usual fare served at the shelter.

Jessica Eken, chair of the Har El committee, said they couldn't provide this service without the resources provided by Quest Food Exchange. Quest rescues high-quality food destined for landfills and then sells it at very low prices to social service partners, like Har El's group. Quest rescues 6.6 million pounds of good food that would otherwise end up in Vancouver landfills every year.

Eken said that by purchasing food from Quest, it stretches her committee's funds and allows it to help more people. And the bonus, she said, is, "We get fresh food at low prices, so we can serve more dinners over a longer period of time. At the same time, we help the planet because we're not throwing anything away – we're using it."

Warner said Har El is one of the only groups that comes in to prepare meals for shelter residents. "It's really important because right now our staff are doing it [preparing meals] and it takes them away from working with our residents, so when Har El comes in, it frees up our staff to do what they need to do. Furthermore," she added, "our residents have spent most of their lives being stigmatized and marginalized. It means a lot to them to have someone care enough about them to come in and prepare a lovely meal."

While the tikkun olam committee operates on a shoestring budget – last year it raised $1,700 and is only able to provide its meals with the help of an anonymous donor who contributes every month – Eken said recruiting volunteers for her committee has not been a challenge. "It was the easiest thing to organize," she said, "because the people that get involved in this cooking thing – and they are people from all age ranges and both sexes – not only do they leave with a feeling of satisfaction for having done something for people who are in such desperate circumstances, but at the same time, they're engaged, they're involved, they do something that isn't just giving money."

Eken herself finds the experience gratifying. "The whole tikkun olam committee is really close to my heart," she said. "I run two businesses, so I'm a capitalist in that sense, but I'm always rooting for the underdog. It breaks my heart to see men and women that have no home. And you know what, a lot of people who are working are just a paycheque away from that same situation and I don't think the government is doing enough, because sometimes it withdraws support in the summer and [the shelter] has to close the doors. It's immoral to send these people out on the street.

"I think for Jewish people to be reaching out to others outside the Jewish community is only indicative of what we really are supposed to be doing, looking after others, not just other Jews. Somewhere in the back of my mind, there's always this hope that perhaps we can change some stereotypes that are raging their ugly head again, you know, [that] we're not what so many people think we are; we do a lot of good."

Har El's tikkun olam committee is embarking on another project in its quest to repair the world. In conjunction with the Rotary Club, volunteers will make baby quilts for children in developing countries. The quilts will be distributed through Doctors without Borders. Anyone interested in joining the committee can e-mail Eken at [email protected].

Kelley Korbin is a freelance writer living in West Vancouver.

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