Join the Edmonton community in serving Bissell Centre Lunch: Sept. 22

By Regan Lipes

(AJNews) – As with any undertaking in the Edmonton Jewish community, it’s a team-effort, and volunteers are the backbone of successful programs. For over a decade Beth Israel Synagogue, with the extensive support of community partners, has organized an annual lunch service at the Bissell Centre engaging with some of Edmonton’s most vulnerable citizens in the Downtown core. Click here to help out. 

In January 2024 Mayor Amarjeet Sohi stated at a City Council meeting that: “Over the past three years, we have been building from an urgent issue to an emergency. The system is at a breaking point.” Community outreach groups like the Bissell Centre too are feeling the strain on their limited resources, but this mission since 1910 has been to serve and support those in need. What began as a small Methodist community outreach undertaking has since grown, and this year’s lunch is made possible by the efforts of the Inner-City Pastoral Ministry in cooperation with the Jewish community.

For anyone who frequents Downtown Edmonton, it is plain to see that the landscape has changed. While extreme affluence is showcased by grand new buildings and the electricity of big business, one need only turn around a street corner to see unimaginable destitution and poverty on a large scale. In February 2024, CBC reported that 49 separate homeless encampments were dismantled across Edmonton, scattering disadvantaged individuals and families already marginalized to the peripheries of society.

It is a terrifying world when a person does not know where their next meal will come from, or worse, how to provide for the basic needs of their children. In past years the annual Bissell Centre lunch hosted by Beth Israel in cooperation with other Jewish organizations served a full Thanksgiving meal to this vulnerable population. Volunteers would gather and engage with the individuals they served dinner to bringing a bit of festive Thanksgiving cheer.

This is not the only time of year the Jewish community of Edmonton joins together for a Bissell Centre chesed engagement; during the December holidays, Beth Shalom Synagogue also runs a similar program.

During COVID this approach adapted with the times, and volunteers began to pre-pack lunches and deliver them to the Bissell Centre for distribution.  The team also serves up hot coffee and friendly smiles along with nonperishable food items and personal essentials.

When the Beth Israel community initially began its work with the Bissell Centre, the project was pioneered by Rebbetzin Batya Friedman who was heavily involved with the Interfaith Housing Initiative. Now, the numbers of volunteers and Jewish organization partners has grown, but the demand for supplies and donations has never been greater.

Last year, under the post-COVID model of pre-packaged distribution, 250 individual parcels containing food and essentials were handed out. Organizers try to ensure that what is given out is of a healthy nature, but also non-perishable so that products can be saved for later if need be. Drinks are also bottled or resealable.  Donations of socks and basic toiletries are all brand new in their original packaging. Everything is practical and functional to fit the needs of those experiencing homelessness.

In 2024 Global News aired Surviving Edmonton, a documentary highlighting that unhoused populations experience homelessness for myriad reasons. One of the documentary’s subjects, Kimberley Roberts, described the societal sigma of being homeless as feeling like a “disposable person.”  In 2023, fires at homeless encampments in Edmonton cost four people their lives, and an even greater number died from drug overdoses. Although Roberts acknowledged in her interview that mental health obstacles contribute as barriers for many seeking stable housing, many who abuse illegal drugs on the streets do so because of the extreme toll living unhoused has taken on them.

This annual cooperation of the larger Edmonton Jewish community might only be one or two days, but the parcels distributed make a difference for hundreds of people who are being fed through these efforts and also receive essential supplies.  If every kind act, every mitzvah, contributes to a larger good, then this yearly chesed project can achieve a positive change for many. By donating food, personal clothing items, and toiletries each little bit adds to this positive impact. The Jewish Federation of Edmonton, Alberta Jewish News, National Council of Jewish Women of Canada Edmonton Section, Edmonton Talmud Torah Society, Beth Shalom Synagogue, Jewish Family Services, the Jewish National Fund of Canada, Temple Beth Ora, Jewish Senior Drop-in Centre, and Brook’s No Frills are proud to be partnering with Beth Israel Synagogue for this year’s undertaking on September 22.

Those wishing to donate nonperishable food items, hygiene and toiletry items, socks and packable winter supplies should contact Sylvia Benjamin at 780.488.2840 or by email: sylvia@familyshul.org.  Cash donations are also greatly appreciated.  A volunteer sign-up list is available at: https://volunteersignup.org/WRQXB.  Organizers are looking for specific types of food donations, so it is kindly requested that those interested in sharing confer with the link provided.  Warm hats, gloves, and socks are especially helpful. Those interested in assisting with packing and transporting the parcels are also invited to join this compassionate project, aimed at making a small but positive difference in people’s lives.

Regan Treewater-Lipes is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter