So... the holiday meals list from TDIN is out. And it's been LEAKED!!!! Oh my god oh my god oh my god! They stopped publishing it online, so there is absolutely no way to view it on the internet except, of course, on this site. Because somebody uploaded it to their google docs and posted it. And then it got compared to the Calendar page on this site, which got heavily updated. And then it got embedded below:
There are some clear discrepancies between this schedule and the regular mealtimes of a lot of these places. So there are some details to clear up, but the calendar is much more accurate than it was six hours ago. Many, many disappointing closures have been marked, so hopefully some heartbreak can be avoided./
It's worth noting that there are way, way more closures than extra holiday meals. Way more. Way, way fucking more.
The other thing, this is silly, but Sistering and 416 Dundas, the two major places specifically for women, weren't on the site at all, and now they are. It's pretty startling to finally be able to add a couple of programs that are just two meals every single day, at the same time. Not a few days a week at three different times, not every third and fourth sunday of some bullshit, but every single day of the week, at the same times. And the hours of the drop-in are: 24/7. It's like a whole other world, especially for women. Where you don't have to go all over the city every single day, where you can go to the same place for two or even three meals each day. And you can just go there anytime you need to. That's absolutely amazing. That must be wonderful. It makes a lot more sense why men in poverty are so much more visible: they have to stay on the move, and the women are all hidden away at the women-only programs. There's only one breakfast and lunch program that's open every single day, and includes men, and it's the Good Shepherd.
redcross.ca should create a prominent link on their homepage so that we can indeed determine that there was no meal program on December 26, 2015; contrary to the table listing.
ReplyDeleteThey are interested in getting donations, but it doesn't hurt the process if they show accurate schedules.
I'm the loser who put this together and I can personally assure you, it's not the only error in the list, and the other stuff in the holiday calendar isn't completely solid either. I integrated the list and double-checked with a couple of places, but really didn't do the entire job of confirming all the listings, which is what really needs to be done. And that's what TDIN is trying to do as well, but they're also not completing the task. And, yeah, it doesn't seem like donations hinge too much on our level of access.
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