In order to help the community through the coronavirus pandemic, volunteers from St. Aidan Anglican Church have been spending part of their weekends providing bagged lunches at the door of the church for anyone in need, free of charge.
Beginning at 11:45 a.m. every Saturday and Sunday, volunteers will be on hand to give out prepared bagged lunches on a first-come-first-serve basis, as a service to community members in need.
“These are more difficult times, and there are going to be people who are more vulnerable and [that] some of the people who were able to take care of their food needs may not be able to at this point,” said Michelle Josefson, parish administrator.
The parish usually serves a lunchtime meal after their Sunday service that is open to anyone in the community, and they decided to continue the idea even after government measures closed the church’s doors to the public.
“When the pandemic stuff came into play, we recognized that the need for food was not going to diminish,” said Josefson. “So, if there's a way for us to be able to help in that way, whatever limited way we can, it’s really important to us to be able to feed the hungry.”
After consulting Riverside Mission and the Salvation Army about the meals they are offering, St. Aidan’s found that there was a gap in service during the weekend.
“Lunches and suppers Monday to Friday were being covered by those two places,” said Josefson. “But then there was nothing happening on Saturday and Sunday.”
St. Aidan’s volunteers chose to step up and fill that gap, first offering the to-go lunches on Mar. 15 and Mar. 22, before deciding to include hand-out times on both Saturdays and Sundays moving forward.
Josefson estimates they are providing around 40 people with their meal, which usually consists of a sandwich, granola bar, some kind of fruit, and a bottle of water.
This past Sunday, volunteers were left with just a couple of pre-made lunches after everything was done.The entire project is run by volunteers, who both put together the bagged lunches and hand them out, and all of the ingredients are being supplied either by the parish itself or through donations from parishioners.
“Some parishioners are willing to just go and buy some supplies if they've signed up to make lunches,” said Josefson. “But if not, then the church picks up whatever the rest of the cost is to be able to make reasonably substantial meals for people who are potentially not getting another meal on those two days.”
Being able to continue providing a meal to the community on Sundays was important to the church, said Josefson.
For many parishioners, she felt, being able to offer a meal like this is helping to ease some of the anxiety and helplessness many are feeling during the pandemic. It's also an opportunity to continue supporting the community that St. Aidan's has built through their usual Sunday lunches.
“Some of these people have actually become part of our community, our church community,” said Josefson. “And so they're people that we know and care about and we want to make sure that they’re not going hungry in this more difficult time.”
Bagged lunches will be available for pick-up at the 1st Ave door of St. Aidan’s every weekend for the foreseeable future, said Josefson.
Riverside Mission is continuing to provide a takeout supper service from Mondays to Fridays from 4:45 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. The Salvation Army is providing bagged lunches from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Mondays to Fridays.
