This city claims it is doing (a) and (b); inadvertently or not, however, the masters of Toronto’s financial universe are doing (c).
I dropped by at lunch the other day to see my pal, Father Roberto. He is the modest genius whose mission, St. John The Compassionate, feeds and clothes the poor and provides real jobs in one of the best artisanal bakeries in the city.
The padre was in his office, looking at a new garbage and recycling bill that would ultimately cost St. John some $17,000 a year. The fee is one of those little things that slipped by unnoticed during the last budget process. Oh, no, not so fast: it slipped the notice of anyone with a heart.
Father Roberto said, “We feed about 100 people every day at lunch; also about 20 in the morning, and 20 snacks a day. We serve 3,000 meals a month.”
I smelled pasta Bolognese.
“Sometimes we have two sittings. In winter, there tend to be more people; the ones who live on the streets often line up at 5:30 a.m.; they are the ones who walk all night, they’re not part or the system, I never see them during the day.”
That is the size and scope of the meals program; what about the bakery? “We hire people who otherwise would have no jobs. We pay a living wage, and benefits. We get people off welfare. We don’t rely on any subsidy — the bakery is not a money-making project for the mission; the money goes to the people.
“We provide work, and we teach people how to bake bread. Someone who trains here can work elsewhere.” The bakery employs 15 to 20 people. The bread is outstanding. The problem?
“The city wants us to pay for garbage pick-up. The problem is that we are on the receiving end of what is given to us.” I asked him to explain.
“We are given bags of clothes — people do want to help — but not all of what they give us is useful, so that’s a source of garbage for which we have to pay.
“And then, suppose Second Harvest gives us a skid of strawberries; half are good, half are not, but all those containers are not recyclable.”
In other words, St. John The Compassionate is clothing people, and providing 3,000 meals a month — at no charge to the city — and yet our elected municipal penny-pinchers want to charge Father Roberto for something over which he has no control.
He said, “We serve the hungry, the transient, people who do not fit in; here, they get a place in society; here, there is belonging and meaning.”
And then he said something chilling. “If we have to pay for what we get from Second Harvest, we’ll have to refuse food, because we can’t afford to get rid of the packaging.”
That’s absurd.
He has spoken with city officials. “I was told there was consultation.” Oh, phooey. “I told the city we were serving 3,000 meals a month; if we have to stop, I asked where would they go? I was told that people could go to city shelters. But the city is closing shelters; how is the city going to provide 3,000 extra meals?”
Good question.
You might like to know that the rest of the volunteer meal programs in the city are also affected. Father Roberto said, “I think it is radically unjust.”
Unjust?
There are other, more colorful ways to describe the picking of the pockets of the poor, and the stealing of food off their plates.
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Joe Fiorito
No comments:
Post a Comment