It's hard to believe I started this blog a year ago, but Christmas has rolled around again. I do the layout for Edmonton Street News, often from Indian computer shops. It's one of those tasks a person can do anywhere in the world and I like making a continuing contribution. I sold street newspapers on corners myself. I know that the money people can make doing this, while it may seem minuscule to those in the mainstream economy, is important to those whose lives sometimes hang by a thread, especially in winter. And the chance to tell your story and interact with people who have had the same experiences is therapeutic.
Last year we ran out of food before all the people who came to eat were fed, so this year we rounded up more food and sent off letters asking for donations. The amount of food that landed at the mission, even after we had brought our own was phenomenal.
But people kept coming and we kept on feeding them. The only problem was, we only had the use of the room until five when the regular mission people put on a supper. We were feeding people from twelve o'clock to four o'clock, they just kept coming. Finally we packed up all the leftovers and left them for the mission volunteers and with great difficulty got tables cleared and floors mopped while more people kept coming. It was pretty insane.
The number of homeless people in Edmonton has soared with recent rent increases. My rent went from $475 to $650. $650 is now the bottom line, people on welfare get $395, there is just nothing to rent for that. Even the ones on AISH like me are having to choose between food and shelter now. There were lots of people appreciated a free meal.
But there are lots of free meals at Christmas. Things start getting grim in January and February is the pits. I'm going to suggest we have a Valentines day party for our vendors. Maybe it wouldn't be quite such a zoo. We have about twenty regular vendors. About three hundred people showed up for the meal.
Of course one of our local politicians showed up, Hugh MacDonald and the television cameras. No wonder the Iraqis shoot those guys. They are looking more and more like cyborgs every year.
