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Meals served by mensches at kosher homeless
BBQ
By Desmond Devoy, Ottawa
East EMC
Posted Aug 21, 2009
Volunteer server Suzanne
Bregman chats with a client before serving some food at
Congregation Beth Shalom.
EMC News - If Meals on Wheels
provides food for seniors, then last week, Lowertown's
homeless population
were fed Meals by Mensches.
(A mensch,
is a Yiddish word meaning a person of integrity and honour.)
"The
people who are here are people from the (homeless)
community that
we deal with," said Pete Cassidy,
director of the Street Smarts program,
an offshoot
of Jewish Family Services (JFS), as he surveyed
the BBQ scene at Congregation Beth Shalom, 151 Chapel
Street in Lowertown, on the afternoon of Tuesday,
August 11. "Right now, we've succeeded. So
long as one person is fed, that's good."
The organizers
had food on hand for to feed about 600 people, and
with a sizable representation of downtown's homeless
population on hand, availing of hamburgers,
salad,
oranges, watermelons and soft drinks and more,
the
organizers had reason to call the BBQ a success.
"I'm really pleased. The turn out is incredible,"
said Cassidy. "We're doing it for the people.
It's all for the people."
The BBQ follows a similar event held this past winter,
and another BBQ that was held last summer.
"We want to make this an annual event,"
said Cassidy.
The BBQ was sponsored by
Jewish Family Services, the JFS's Street Smarts
program, the Shepherds of Good Hope, The Ottawa
Mission, Operation Come Home, Centre 454, The Salvation
Army. On the business side of things, Creative Kosher
Catering, Orléans Fresh Fruit and Vegetables and
the Rideau Bakery all donated food to the event. |
Desmond Devoy, Ottawa
East EMC
Volunteer server Suzanne Bregman chats with a client
before serving some food
at Congregation Beth Shalom. |
Since the setting and
sponsorship was mainly Jewish, the food on offer to the
homeless reflected the city's multicultural sensibilities.
"We're doing it
kosher because there's a lot of Muslims out there who
can't eat a lot of food out there because
it isn't halal,
so kosher is very close," said Cassidy.
"We are kosher
because it is a Jewish agency," added Mark Zarecki,
Executive Director of JFS. He added that
the BBQ was also
put on because "it shows that the Jewish community
does care."
In Zarecki's estimation,
for some in the homeless community, "they don't know
who Jews are and it (the BBQ)
gives them a chance to see
a different community...It gives them a few minutes of
not worrying about themselves and their predicaments and
it gets them out of the shelters."
While many Christian
charities try to link occasions to feed the homeless with
both religious and secular holidays, like Thanksgiving
and Christmas - JFS intentionally chose August because
it lies in the dog days of summer.
"We did this on
purpose, for that reason," said Zarecki. "We
fit it in when there's low interest. Whenever it is the
doldrums, people forget about the people in need."
He added, with a laugh
though that one really doesn't need a reason to have a
BBQ since "a BBQ in summer is
a good thing."
Many homeless people
face barriers to both housing, employment and social inclusion,
but members of
the synagogue want the homeless to know
that their door is one of many that is open to them.
"We're the only
synagogue in the downtown area, and it's our duty to open
our doors to the people in
the community," said Cantor
Ben Lolo. "The synagogue is always available for
them."
Cantor Lolo said that
the event was "fantastic," and that it had attracted
"as many people as last time."
Even though the
homeless community seemed genuinely pleased with the warm
reception, warm food and cool eating area, Cantor Lolo
added that "it's sad that we can't do this every
week."
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