The Salvation Army in Ottawa is closing down its community meal program.
Sunday will be the last day that the Booth Centre will serve up its daily breakfast and brunch program leaving other shelters to fill the void. The closure of that community meal program comes on the heels of the Salvation Army shutting down its operation completely in Pembroke. Whether the two are related, the Salvation Army won't say, but they do believe their resources can be better used in this city by re-directing funds elsewhere.
Jordan Henderson lives at the Salvation Army's Booth Centre. He will still be able to get meals here. But for those walking in, Sunday is their last day to eat there.
“That's going to suck for them because they're not going to be able to get the meal they want when they need it most,” says Henderson, outside the Booth Centre, “and if they don't have it, where are they going to go. I feel for them.”
For many years now, the Booth Centre has offered an 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. meal to anyone in need.
But the executive director of the Booth Centre, Marc Provost, says the bigger need is in preventing homelessness and providing clothing, furniture, food and summer camps to those in need. Provost says they’ve seen a 300% spike in demand in recent years for these services.
“Our community and family services is really,” he says, “the demand on that has increased and the need is there. It's really about homelessness prevention and we feel that's where we need to put more emphasis and that's what we're doing.”
The end of this meal program comes on the heels of the complete shutdown of the Salvation Army in Pembroke, after 133 years in service in that city.
Provost says he can’t speak to the Pembroke situation in any way but clearly the Booth Centre’s decision to shut its community meal program will impact other programs in Ottawa.
“People still need to eat,” says Dexter, who is staying at the Booth Centre, “and the homeless who live on the street do come and eat community meals.”
The Salvation Army serves about 115 meals at the Booth Centre every day during those two time slots, meals they're convinced can be absorbed by other programs in this area.
The Ottawa Mission already serves about 14-hundred meals a day but says it will do what it can to fill the void left by the Booth Centre.
“We're all re-directing our services,” says the Ottawa Mission Executive Director Peter Tilley, “We're all trying to be as efficient as we can. It's tight times and most shelters haven’t seen an increase in their city funding in these times for about 6 years.”
The changes come in effect March 31st. The Salvation Army emphasizes, though, it will still offer its Easter and Christmas meals; an important way, they say, to keep in touch with that vulnerable population they serve.
