Poor, artsy Toronto Youth between 16 and 29 years can finally chill: Sketch is back, with meals!

The new space at Artscape Youngplace is finally, finally, finally ready. And they're serving their first lunch this Tuesday, September 22nd.

The map and calendar on this site have been updated with the new information. If you're between 16 and 29, and you need food, check this out. If you're into making art, stick around after lunch.

Sketch can be sketchy, but its food standards have always been ahead of the pack. That's because from sourcing to serving, they're not afraid to integrate and innovate: integrate the community and innovate to solve problems. So this is an important event for Toronto in terms of food security, but even more so in terms of social change and cultural development.

Meals are an important part of the Sketch program, because they enhance the health of their participants, but they're also critical to enable access to the rest of the programming. Young poor people can't go somewhere to do something unless there's a free meal involved. That's just a fact of life. But Sketch goes beyond that and provides substantial, healthy meals. At least, historically. So only because the food works, and wakes everybody up, then you've got a ton of youth who can engage in a unique artmaking opportunity. That's what brings Sketch beyond this industry that we have of using twenty bucks of funding money to deliver five bucks' worth of food to somebody who's just traveled for an hour to get there, and employ a bunch of people in the process. The Sketch crew actually have an excuse to get paid, beyond the fact that the public is more willing to make money by providing services to the poor, than they are to just give us the money we need to take care of ourselves. Simply put, people who aren't poor don't trust the poor. If they're going to help us out, they want to get something out of it, and they want it to be on their terms, in the form of programs. We use programs to get everything. Programs that cost more than the amount we'd need not to need the programs. But some programs are actually unique, and provide a useful social service while addressing a pressing need.

So it's good to see that Sketch is finally back, with lunch. Hopefully it's good lunch. And dinner.