Feeding people across the province
New effort to curb homelessness makes Oshawa stop
Volunteers Elyssa Scott, 10, and Emma Nelson, 5, were among many helping to hand out food and donations at the Back Door Mission during Feed the Street’s stop there. The new initiative is travelling across the province, helping raise awareness of homelessness and other related concerns in those communities.
By Graeme McNaughton/The Oshawa Express
Working in Toronto, Jordon Detlor saw the effects that homelessness had – and he decided he wanted to do something about it.
And that was when Feed the Streets was born.
The Meaford resident says he started the program, which will tour all across the province, in November with his fiancée because he wanted to bring different local organizations together to target the goal as a whole.
We decided to come together and try to bring as much as awareness as we can to homelessness, as well as people in need across Ontario and Canada,” Detlor told The Oshawa Express during Feed the Street’s Oshawa stop.
“So we’re looking to go city to city…every other month and basically build within each community and meet with local shelters and local food banks and missions to see where we can help gain any contributions or anything that we can bring in, donation wise, to help reinforce what they’re doing and come together to help reach out on to the streets to hand out meals and clothing and anything else that we can bring in that’s useful or helpful.”
Detlor and numerous volunteers were operating out of the Back Door Mission on Friday, providing anyone who came through the door with something to eat and a hot cup of coffee or hot chocolate. There were also donated clothing available for those in need.
While the numbers aren’t in for the Oshawa stop, Detlor says that the program has been successful in other cities its run in, with 1,500 people being fed during stops in Toronto, Barrie and London.
Going ahead, Detlor says he hopes to have people in different communities maintain what Feed the Streets is doing, even when that town isn’t the next stop on the province-wide tour.
I’m hoping we can bring out and inspire more people to get involved and come together and offer that reaching hand, and keep it going,” he says.
“We want to show people in these communities that if we can come from other communities and bring help, contributions, donations, we can keep this going. It doesn’t have to stop just because we leave.”
For more information on Feed the Streets, please visit their Facebook page at facebook.com/feedthestreetscanada.