Breakfast program needs second funding extension to continue

Henry Berthelette (left) receives a box meal from Justice Chalifoux of the 7-10 Club on the morning of Oct. 20. This week, the City of Nanaimo’s finance and audit committee voted to recommend that funding for the breakfast program be extended until the end of the year. Photo: Mick Sweetman / CHLY 101.7FM

The City of Nanaimo’s finance and audit committee is recommending that city council allocate $60,000 to continue a breakfast meal program until the end of the year.

This is the second funding extension being requested for the program after council extended funding in July for four months.

The Salvation Army and the 7-10 Club distribute 100 meals daily at Caledonia Park and at the overdose prevention site on Albert Street.

The bulk of the funding, $52,880, will come from the money left over from the Daytime Resource Centre project with $7,120 from the city’s strategic reserve.

Previously, the 7-10 Club operated an indoor breakfast program in a city-owned building on Prideaux street that has since been converted into permanent supportive housing. The 7-10 Club has not been able to secure a new building since it closed in 2021.

The Salvation Army ran an indoor breakfast program from the fall of 2021 until October 2022. Construction at the New Hope Centre forced a move to a distributed model where the food is prepared at the Salvation Army at a former White Spot restaurant on Terminal Avenue and it is distributed to people who are homeless by the 7-10 Club.

The city sent a letter to the Ministers of Social Development and Poverty Reduction and Housing on September 15 to request funding for a permanent meal program but city staff say they haven’t received a reply.

Councillor Ian Thorpe says that he worries about the city spending money on services that should be funded by other levels of government.

“I will support the recommendation for the funding until the end of the year,” he said. “But I do have concerns going further down the calendar than that, because providing social services is not the mandate of the city per se.”

City Councilor Paul Manly says people who are unhoused say they need an indoor hub where they can access a variety of services.

“I think that a real need is to have that kind of hub for people to be able to get warm, have a meal, get their clothes cleaned, have a shower, have proper hygiene, and be able to live like dignified human beings,” he said. “To be able to have a shower and then have a place to stay warm afterwards is really important in these colder weather months.”

Manly also took aim at the Trudeau government for underfunding responses to Canada’s homelessness crisis.

“The amount of money that comes into this community from the federal government for this program is pathetic,” he said. “It's leaving community organizations scrapping over bread crumbs to figure out how to deal with the crisis that we're in.”

In 2020, the province announced funding for a Navigation Centre in Nanaimo for people experiencing homelessness, that would have included 60 shelter beds with wrap-around supports, something the city says it is still working on with BC Housing over three years later.

Councillor Hiliary Eastmure says that while she supports continuing to fund the outreach breakfast program, what’s really needed is to find an indoor space.

“This is for people who don't have a dry place to eat their meal,” she said “They've been out in the rain all night, and we'll be out in the rain all day. It's a heartbreaking situation.”

Eastmure says she would like to see people in the community with access to space step up to help.

“I just would implore the community, if you have an empty building that could be used for this,” she said. “I think we need to get a little bit more creative, and a little bit more open minded, about opening our doors to community members in need who deserve a dry place to be able to eat a meal.”

City staff also revealed that the city does not have funding from the Strengthening Communities' Services Program for a daytime warming centre this winter, but money is available from the provincial Community Emergency Preparedness Fund to respond to extreme cold weather events.

The recommendation to extend funding for the breakfast meal program passed the committee unanimously and will now go to a future city council meeting for a decision.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.