Happy Hungry Canada Day

TDIN really put their best foot forward this time, offering a great hilighted link on the front of their website, to the meal program holiday update for Canada Day... but of course...

1. You have to download a PDF file.
2. The PDF file has trouble downloading in certain browsers
3. The PDF file doesn't have a file extension on the end of it, so inexperienced Windows users may not be able to figure out how to open it.
4. The file is just called "Canada."

The good news: The Scott's open. EHM's open. CONC's open. The bad news: this guide is two pages and has very few listings. That is pretty sad.

But check it out: there's whisperings of a BBQ in Trinity Bellwoods Park at 1pm.

Here's their document converted so it can be viewed online: TDIN's Meal Program Listings for Canada Day 2013.

And here it is right in the page:

So once again, thanks to TDIN for doing the research, hopefully it's accurate, seems like about 1/3rd of what we'd usually have access to on a Monday, so who knows what's still happening today? If anybody knows of any Canada Day meals, any comments at the bottom could help someone.

Good luck and happy Canada Day, if that's what you want to hear.

The519 Sunday Breakfast & Monday MealTrans meal programs closed due to pride.

This is a great way to make Pride less accessible to the poor - suspend the free meals in the Village!

Of course, it's understandable. All the staff are busy with Pride related stuff. But it's funny how as soon as there's a holiday or something, the first thing that gets dropped is meal programs. So, for poor people, holidays and festivals are confusing, frustrating, hungry times.

That's why it's nice that St. Felix made the move to maintain most of their hours during holidays. Too bad they're not open on Sundays. And no $1 dinners. They just do lunch.

So this is going to be a very, very hungry Sunday for a lot of people. Many of those who use The519's meals aren't comfortable at the Good Shepherd, and the Shepherd doesn't offer an actual breakfast meal anyway, just a lot of sugar, dough and coffee - a great way to set poor people up for the day. Exactly what all us depressed schitzophrenics need to prepare us for an awesome downtown celebration like Pride. Crippling hunger, dizzying coffee and sugar rush, harsh sun, public partying.

Sistering

They do put up a good calendar - it even lists meal times!

And their drop-in page is pretty good.

So they have two meal programs, one in Parkdale at the Masaryk-Cowan Community Centre, and one on Bloor St near Ossington, which is a lot like CONC to the east - a storefront type of place:

Looks like between the two drop-ins, they offer more than 30 hours a week of coverage, which includes meals and a long list of other services.

Sistering is for women only. If there's one thing everyone learns from the soup kitchen scene, it's bravery, and women have to be especially brave to even start to venture into the scene. Sexual and gender harassment, and violence, are on the table, so to speak, so it's important to have a sprinkling of segregation here and there.

There are plenty of programs specifically for youth, men over 50, men only, LGBTQ and even just T people, and there are probably some secret Chinese ones, and of course, specific religious ones, etc. It'd be good to get the full range on this site, because 'etc' is a painful substitute. And it's silly that Sistering has taken so long to get here. It's in all the other listings, and this site is supposed to offer some coverage. But it did start with the programs that are open to absolutely everyone, and branched out. It needs to keep doing that.

Unfortunately, their email doesn't work:

Closed on OW payday: the Corner Drop-in at St. Stephen's does the unthinkable

Great time for a closure - when all the OW recipients plan to meet up with their ODSP recipient buddies to treat them to... whatever. A meal. Some drugs. Some booze. Some smokes. Some bike parts. Whatever it is. So that'll probably all be going down at the meeting place. Lots of debts getting repaid.

But it won't be going down at St. Stephen's Community House on Augusta just south of College. They're taking a "staff day."

Will there be a big crowd of confused and frustrated people at the Odette Corner Drop tomorrow morning? It'd be a good time to cruise by with some snacks to hand out.