It’s been helping those experiencing homelessness for five decades, but for the first time in its history, Kelowna’s Gospel Mission has struggled with food insecurity and being able to feed everyone who is in need.
“January last year, we cut dinner service, it was quite devastating for the team and difficult to do so,” said Carmen Rempel, Gospel Mission’s executive director.
The reduction in meals from three to two lasted an entire year, with dinner service only being reinstated this month thanks to a pair of significant donations.
But the donations will only cover the next 12 months, leaving the organization fearful of having to cut meal services again.
“There are so many in our community that are worried about how they’re going to feed their families. I’m sitting here wondering how I’m going to feed 300 people and the stress of that is real,” Rempel told Global News.
“Because food service is so core to what we do and so core to caring for people experiencing homelessness, it feels very vulnerable when that funding in particular is unstable.”
Rempel said the growing need in the community has outpaced the resources available.
“It really is the meeting of two different crises,” Rempel said. “We have the escalation of the amount of people who are experiencing homelessness out in the street who need our services and at the same time we have the inflation, the cost of food that’s gone up and it’s just made it so that it’s been incredibly difficult to keep up.”
No one knows that better than the outreach teams that are on the front lines.
“We’ve just noticed quite a large increase even over last year at this time,” said outreach manager Josh Heinitz. “The number of people that we’ve seen outside is at least doubled and the need is just there for for food especially…we’re giving out about 90 meals per evening and we’re running out every day.”
Gospel Mission food service manager Jeremy Luypen said every donated dollar and every item of food is stretched to the max.
“The rising cost of food is tough, so when we look at like what we’re serving them and sometimes it is through great donations or like we’re buying ugly vegetables that people wouldn’t buy normally buy and…making good food from that,” Luypen said.
“We have like a zero-waste philosophy and we do make things go as far as they possibly can.”
The organization is appealing to anyone considering donating to do so on a monthly basis.
“Monthly donations are so important for non-profits because it gives us the core funding that we can trust, that is sustainable, that we know is going to come in month to month,” Rempel said.
“Even a small thing $20 a month, $25 a month goes a long way for us being able to provide sustainable care for our people who are experiencing homelessness in our city.”
You can check out the Gospel Mission’s website for more information or to make a donation.
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