In light of COVID-19 and the changing dynamic it brings for the holiday season, many of us have forgotten what this means for the homeless population in Toronto and the GTA.
While restrictions are lighter than at the peak of the virus, soup kitchens are facing difficult times due to having less volunteers and a growing number of people requiring their services.
Knights Table, a food bank and soup kitchen located in Brampton, Ont. has vowed to help alleviate hunger in Peel region for nearly 30 years.
“It started out as one tiny little room, serving one meal a week. Now we serve three meals a day, 365 days of the year,” said Joanne Hopkinson, the Administrator of Programs at Knight’s Table.
Hopkinson identified how despite their long history, COVID-19 has caused a number of issues, from volunteers to donations.
“We did lose a lot. When everything shut down, all the schools that had placement students there weren’t allowing them to go,” said Hopkinson.
“There’s only five or six staff and the rest are volunteers, so it had a big impact on serving the clients and even doing the day to day paperwork and data entry.”
While volunteering is beginning to pick up again now that more businesses are opening and people are becoming more comfortable getting out of the house, Hopkinson says that a lot of people are still unsure about whether or not they’re accepting donations.
“I think that when everything shut down, they thought that we would be shut down. I’m still finding even now that I’m getting phone calls saying ‘hey, are you open can we bring donations?’ and I’m like, ‘yes, please bring them in!’”
In regards to the holiday season, Hopkinson made it clear that they are doing everything in their power to make it as normal as possible.
Around Christmas time, Knight’s Table delivers Holiday Hampers to families in need, giving them lots of food to enjoy the holidays. That includes turkey, stuffing and many of the other holiday staples we all enjoy.
Not only that, but they have an Adopt-a-Family program where you can adopt families in need, helping to supply them with all the Christmas essentials they would need for a normal holiday season. From Christmas dinner to Christmas gifts for the children, you can be a real life Santa Claus for the people who need it the most.
“A lot of people have such a negative opinion and attitude about people that are homeless. They think that it’s a choice, and that they can change things, but they can’t. They really can’t,” said Hopkinson.
“It’s very difficult for them to reach out and ask for that help, so we try as best we can to make sure that they’re not made to feel bad about that.”
She recounts times that she’s wandered outside into the parking lot at Knight’s Table to find their clients singing, dancing and laughing together.
“They’re just so full of joy and happiness and gratitude for the little that they have. They’re the most incredible people.”
In order to get started and help some of these incredible people, visit https://knightstable.org for more information.
For those who can’t donate, follow along on their journey to alleviate hunger on their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.