Day One: Where to go?

Challenge card for day one: You are staying at the shelter tonight, but the shelter doors open at 8. Find somewhere else to go from 6-8 (you cannot rely on family or friends).

After finishing up at the St. Alban's meal program at around 7pm, Sam and I headed out to see if we could find another indoor, warm space to spend time until the shelter opens. Since all programming options had closed down for the evening the best option we could come up with would be to do a tour of some local businesses, like the grocery stores or Shopper's, for a while (as long as we weren't asked to leave), perhaps check out the legion and the recreation centre until 8pm. Fortunately, Friday evening wasn't a super cold night, but it still felt uncomfortable and cold being outside with no certain destination or just feeling like you are waiting around for a door to open.

Many community meal and day programs extend their operating hours during times of extreme cold weather. This is such a valuable service offered to those in need, and it's important to acknowledge the additional stress this would place on a group of community volunteers already working tirelessly to provide warm food and community spaces to people in Kenora. When at St. Alban's for our 6pm meal one of the volunteers mentioned that she had been there since 2pm - that's a long stretch especially if you include the time afterwords cleaning and wrapping up.

Sam and I both agree that we could be doing so much more to support the work being done in our community to provide for people in poverty. I said it in my last post as well, inclusion and connection are so important. Not only does the meal programming put food in empty bellies, it also provides a social space. We shared in good conversation with some of the patrons and listened to them greet one another with smiles and laughs.