OGT update

We’re at about 17 Street Packs! Thanks so much for everyone who’s pledged and/or brought in their donations so far!!!

As stated in the previous post, our goal this year is 60 Street Packs!

Deadline to bring in donations is this Sunday! If you have pledged to give items or a full pack – you can bring in your gifts on Assembly Day (all are welcome!) But please let us know if that’s what you plan to do.

For those who are still deciding how to participate, we encourage monetary gifts just so we can buy things in bulk and have greater savings.

For those who have decided to shop for individual items, we are especially low on the following (new items only please!):

• Sleeping bags – minus 5C is ideal
• Restaurant gift cards – YU recommends $20 value for Tim’s or McD’s – they’re easy to find
• Gloves - size L or XL, dark coloured, durable, water-resistant preferred
• Hair brushes – not combs

Also remember to block off your calendars for Assembly Day on Saturday, December 5th, from 2-5pm! It’ll be in the gym, and will be tons of fun!!!

If anyone can offer to bake some goodies, or bring in snacks to share on Assembly Day, please contact us. Any help would be much appreciated!

And last, but certainly not least, please keep this project in your prayers!

Questions? Comments? Let us know.

A neighbour in need

Here is a startling post from our friend Andy at Project417, about an encounter that hits really close to home for us who attend MCBC or live in Mississauga.

It begs the question: Are our suburban churches being good, caring neighbours to the people and the community around us? Do we even know who our neighbours are?

shopping on a shoestring

To celebrate this month’s grocery run, our group decided to make $20 stretch to feed a family of four for the entire month. Each person could come up with their own composition of the family – 2 adults and 2 kids, 3 kids and a single parent – whatever we wanted.

Here was the menu I came up with:

• 1 box of frosted flakes for breakfast (hopefully I’d get some milk from the food bank)
• 1 jar of strawberry jam for lunch sandwiches (I hope for some bread at the food bank)
• 4 meals of pasta (2 packs of pasta and 2 cans of sauce – maybe a bit from the 2 cans of tuna)
• 2 meals of mac and cheese, with some tuna
• 2 meals of vermicelli (1 pack vermicelli, stir fried with soy sauce and a can of peas and carrots)
• 5 meals of rice, with soy sauce and/or tuna… maybe some of that pasta sauce
• a can of apple sauce for a healthier snack

So I have 13 rather dismal dinners covered for four people, and meagre supplies for breakfast and lunch. That still leaves half a month without food. Everyone was in the same predicament – we all bought pretty much the same items, with some variations:

• Sarah’s breakfast is going to be pancakes from 1 box – it makes 60 pancakes
• Cecilia got quick oatmeal for breakfast – just needs some brown sugar
• Cecilia and Angela both got peanut butter for their kids’ lunches
• stews and soup gave some of the meat content, besides the cheapest meat of tuna
• in total, we got 20 boxes of mac and cheese for our 5 hypothetical families

I think all our bills, save one, went over the $20 budget. In reality, we would’ve had to pick something out of our purchases so that we could pay for everything. One person said, “I need to go over budget so my kids can have a lunch!” And I kept thinking that my kids wouldn’t have any juice for lunch at school (should I get the Kool-Aid powder?), and that they would probably complain about the lack of variety in their meals. “Mom! Not mac and cheese again!”

It’s a heartbreaking thing to shop below the poverty line.

street level 2009

StreetLevel IV: A Legacy of Justice

Presented by The National Roundtable on Poverty and Homelessness

“A national conference designed to network, resource, encourage and euqip those who work among homeless and street-involved youth and adults, or are interested in engaging in relevant social justice issues.”

March 25-28, 2009 @ The Westin Hotel, Downtown Ottawa, Ontario

Speakers include Rev. Pierre Allard, Cheryl Bear, Bruxy Cavey, Tim Huff, Greg Paul, and Rick Tobias.

For more info, including sessions and registration info, visit http://www.streetlevel.ca.

corn in your car?

“The stage is now set for the direct competition for grain between the 800 million people who own automobiles, and the world’s two billion poorest people.” – Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute

So, basically, we are beginning to fuel up our vehicles with people’s food. Or, we can let them eat our fuel. How are we to choose what to do?

Read more:

• The fight for the world’s food. – Daniel Howden, The Independent (UK)
• Selected articles from The Future of Food in an Urbanized World, Geez Magazine (Issue 8; Canadian)

appalling housing conditions

I was doing some surfing today and stumbled across a small photo collection of housing provided by Toronto Community Housing on the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) site. Can you imagine having to live in such conditions (i.e. collapsing ceilings, walls with holes, exposed wiring) on a daily basis?

Some housing sites of interest:

• Toronto Community Housing
• More housing news on the OCAP site
• Habitat for Humanity Canada’s housing advocacy brochure (“It’s time to address every Canadian, because every Canadian counts” – it’s a great visual piece)

If you know any other interesting housing stories or sites, leave a comment. Thanks!