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Occupy Vancouver Becomes Big Downtown Eatery

Hundreds of meals a day dished up to all comers as donated food rolls in.

By Colleen Kimmett, 10 Nov 2011, TheTyee.ca

Occupy Vancouver food tent

Food tent at Occupy Vancouver. Photo: Colleen Kimmett.

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On my way to the Occupy Vancouver food tent on the weekend I passed two old men, shuffling along with jam jars of mushroom soup in hand.

"So are you part of this movement?" one asked the other, taking a sip from the jar.

His companion shakes his head, stirred his soup with a spoon. "Nah, just here for the food."

Volunteers have been serving free food out of a tent at the corner of Hornby and Georgia every day since the occupation started on Oct. 16. In the past three weeks it's become a de facto soup kitchen, feeding people who are part of the occupation, but also many others who just want a good meal.

'Whatever comes in, goes out'

Robin Pickell, a 24-year-old Emily Carr student with long blonde dreadlocks, is one of the Food Not Bombs volunteers who help coordinate the kitchen. She says food donations have been coming in steadily. Discovery Organics has sent produce, Eternal Abundance brought large vats of soup, Fifth Avenue Cinemas is donating popcorn, and a farmer in Abbotsford is dropping off boxes of carrots and onions every week. Not to mention the individual donations -- a bag of rice here, a few cans of tomato sauce there -- that add up.

Pickell says they prepare only vegan food in the kitchen, and prefer vegetarian donations. Ultimately, they'll take anything. "Whatever comes in, goes out," she says. Pickell estimates they are serving hundreds if not thousands of meals every day.

She says about 50 per cent of the food is prepared on site, and the other half is prepared off site and brought in. "Lienny," 62, has been coming in three days a week. On the weekend the former restaurant cook came bearing hummous, babaganoush and green salad with spicy peanut dressing, a recipe from her native country of Indonesia.

"I really enjoy doing this," she tells me. "Everybody needs love, everybody feels emptiness. What I realize, here, food is filling that emptiness." Her warm face darkens when I ask what she thinks will happen if they are asked, or forced, to dismantle the kitchen and leave.

"What about the Chinese [Falun Gong] protesters, on Granville street for 20 years," she exclaims. "We have a right to occupy!"

Frank's specialty is Mexican-style beans and rice. He comes in the mornings, picks up the ingredients, takes them back to his place (near the Granville bridge), cooks it up and then brings it back to serve. Frank says he doesn't have a car or bus pass, but when the bus drivers see him coming up the stairs holding a huge pot in both hands, they let him on for free.

I ask how many donations are coming in per day. "Per day?" he asks. "Every five minutes somebody is coming in with something." Yesterday, someone called in saying they had a hundred pot pies.

Indeed, in the half hour it takes me to eat my beans, rice and salad on Sunday afternoon, three people come up with donations, including two women with a couple of large, boxed carrot cakes, each inscribed with the words "Friends for 100 years" ("It's a Quaker saying," one of the women explains.) The arrival of cake draws a lineup. The number of people coming for food ebbs and flows, but remains steady all day since there is no fixed mealtime.

'Everybody should have food'

When I come back the next day, a rainy Monday, it's much more quiet. Volunteer Sean Stuart takes me behind the folding tables where food is dished out so I can see the kitchen. It's equipped with two burners, some basic cooking utensils and appliances, including a blender and toaster, and a sink with running water (which is hosed from a faucet at the side of the Art Gallery). Volunteers (there are about 10 to 12 core people who rotate in and out) stand behind folding tables, on a floor of pallets and plywood and serve food. That's a rule -- you can't serve yourself.

(Rule two: you are supposed to wash your own dishes. That happens in another tent. There's a table with five tubs; one pre-rinse, two wash, and two post-rinse. Clean dishes are left to dry in a shopping cart.)

Stuart, a 32-year-old drywall contractor, happened upon the occupy site when he got off on the wrong Skytrain station. He saw that the kitchen needed help, lent a hand and has been back "nearly every day" since, he says.

Keeping things clean and tidy is the biggest challenge. We watch a stooped over man, wearing many layers and talking to himself, spill raisins all over the table. He barks something unintelligible and walks away. Stuart sighs, "That's the biggest problem right there." He sweeps the spilled raisins into his hand and tosses them.

Vancouver Coastal Health spokesperson Gavin Wilson says environmental health officers have been making routine visits to the occupy site since the beginning, checking for things like food safety, sanitation and pest control. Wilson said officers have made recommendations to the kitchen, and found volunteers to be "very co-operative."

"We have not really seen any big health concerns, at least not in terms of food," he said (although drugs are another matter).

Stuart says he isn't sure what will happen when the city and police order structures removed, something Mayor Gregor Robertson said will happen this week.

"I didn't think the tents should be here, when I first got here," says Stuart. "But I think that everybody should have food."

He spoons out some soup for a man who looks like he came from a construction site. He's wearing a bulky plaid jacket, heavy boots, jeans and ball-cap and looks to be in his late 40s. Stuart asks him what he thinks of the vegan food.

"Vegan? I don't know... what is it, bro?" he asks. Before Stuart can respond the guy moves on. "That's fine, I don't mind it. I appreciate it. Thanks man."

Not everyone is so appreciative. Stuart says one guy got mad because there wasn't enough icing on his piece of chocolate cake. "He threw an orange at me!" he exclaims. "Because he didn't like the piece of free cake I was giving him." He mutters something about losing faith in humanity. But he keeps on serving soup. [Tyee]

Colleen Kimmett writes about food, sustainability and agriculture for The Tyee Solutions Society and others.

13 Comments:

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  • Jeffrey J.

    28 weeks ago

    Welcome to Hooverville: History Repeats Itself

    The widespread popularity of the Occupy movement happened before. In the 1930's, gatherings of people occurred across North America. The most well known occurred in New York, just like ONY). In the 1930's, it was named Hooverville, in 'honour' of the right wing President Hoover who made the Great Depression far worse.

    These large gatherings were NOT simply populated by intellectual protesters. They are populated by the community at large, which includes the homeless, unemployed, the lost and forgotten, families, working people, unions, and single people. All the components of a real society. And they all need to eat, just like the 1%.

    The crash of 1929 mirrors our crash of 2008. Hoover didn't leave office until 1932, three years into the Depression. 2011 brings us the same three year tenure. We have many years to go before change will come.

    And, of course, we will need great media, like the Tyee!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooverville

    "A 'Hooverville' was the popular name for shanty towns built by homeless people during the Great Depression. They were named after the President of the United States at the time, Herbert Hoover, because he allegedly let the nation slide into depression. The term was coined by Charles Michelson, publicity chief of the Democratic National Committee.[1] The name Hooverville has also been used to describe any Tent city populated by the homeless in modern-day America.

    Homelessness was present before the Great Depression, and hobos and tramps were common sights in the 1920s, but the economic downturn increased their numbers and concentrated them in urban settlements close to soup kitchens run by charities. These settlements were often formed on empty land and generally consisted of tents and small shacks. Authorities did not officially recognize these Hoovervilles and occasionally removed the occupants for trespassing on private lands, but they were frequently tolerated or ignored out of necessity.

    Some of the men who were forced to live in these conditions possessed construction skills and were able to build their houses out of stone. Most people, however, resorted to building their residences out of wood from crates, cardboard, scraps of metal, or whatever materials were available to them. They usually had a small stove, bedding and a couple of simple cooking implements.

  • freewilly

    28 weeks ago

    Vancooverville

    As I said before what Vancouver and other cities need is a permanent tent city or area of cheap shelter. I'm dumbfounded by the costs of renting in the city.

    The drug problem is bad enough but the number of folks in mental distress is as epidemic, its been like that for years, yet noone has been able or willing to tackle the situation.

    This sounds kind of tacky but would it be so bad if companies that create novel forms of shelter for the 3rd world, use this opportunity to put up some of these 'buildings'. I guess noone is going to pay for them and nothing will change until the public gets an education or develops a
    heart.

    Reading all the comments from the mainstream newspaper, like "these bums should get a job", "when I was that age I was working at... blah blah blah". Get real noone is going to hire most of these people, nor are they even capable of employment. Many of them can't live in a communal setting with others anyways. So the occupy movement has morphed into a situation that hilites the need for social housing, who would have guessed. Its Vancooverville.

  • morechatter

    28 weeks ago

    Police direct homeless

    And the down and out in the direction of the Occupy Movement to catch a bite to eat.
    "These bums should get a job", words that many are going to eat as they find their job on the line and it hard to afford a meal.
    Many of the homeless are disabled and are not able to find a place to live because few landlords are equipped to become a their mental health team because no one is on the job and $375 isn't about to open any doors.

  • carfreecity

    28 weeks ago

    food tents

    Yes!!! keep the food tent and fold the individual ones
    keep the medic tent too!
    this IS the real Occupy movement
    camping is NOT cool there!

  • Jerry Munro

    28 weeks ago

    To The Purists...

    Outstanding history recall Jeffrey J. You are correct of course. The wingnuts and self-righteous twits simply don't know or choose to forget... and folks need to be reminded of it.

    We are just at the beginning of all this. It was Greece, now it's Italy, and the funny money ruling class crowd today are all beginnin to close in on France, working their way around and across the world. This is the real deal, and folks need to wake up to it and start raising holy hell. The other face of capitalism, the fascist side of its countenance, is again turned to us.

    If Occupy bothers your tender sensibilities now, for its lack of "purity", wait until you ruling class apologists and serving twits see what is coming. For myself, I can scacely wait.

  • morechatter

    28 weeks ago

    Not Cool Here!!!!

    Being homeless is being cold, hungry and unsafe but it exists especially for the disabled,working poor and the young in BC and that is not Cool.

  • Crass

    28 weeks ago

    Welcome to Harperville!

    Welcome to Harperville!

    Widespread income inequality.
    Environmental destruction.
    Growing poverty.
    More homeless.
    Corporate Rule.
    Religious extremism.
    Evolution-denying nutters.
    More soup kitchens.
    More prisons.
    More debt.
    More military.

    No Hope!

    Until Now!

  • Chris Keam

    28 weeks ago

    Solutions Exist

    While it is only one aspect of Occupy, locally-designed affordable alternatives to living on the street or in tents are available to any government willing to ante up the funding and those solutions

    Single person portable dwellings at less than $1500 per unit.

    http://www.chriskeam.com/2008/11/making-most-of-micro-homes.html (self-link)

  • Jerry Munro

    28 weeks ago

    For A Bigger, More In Your Face Tent City...

    We need not fewer, but MORE AND MORE tents in downtown Vancouver.... such a huge city of tents, of the working class poor and the rest of the 99%, that the police and State are simply overwhelmed and paralyzed. The key to keeping Occupy safe and growing its influence is massive public support.

    Overwhelm the Conservatives of the 1% (and some strange Liberals and NDPers whom I just don't get)... and those bootlicks who kiss their ass and serve them.

  • Fii

    28 weeks ago

    I'm pretty sure this happens

    I'm pretty sure this happens in Tokyo- tent cities where people volunteer their time to help feed the homeless. It's about time. Keep the food donations coming... that food sounds yummy!
    Good point about the Falun Gong protest on Granville, too...!

  • capedcrusader

    28 weeks ago

    Down & Out in Paris & London

    I recommend reading George Orwell right now. Down and Out, like 1984, is a novel that will stay with you for the rest of your life. The Road to Wigan Pier is worth a read as well.

    Reading about the Vancouver food camp gives me hope for humanity.

  • igbymac

    28 weeks ago

    Jeffrey J, a nice historical review

    ...but the difference this time is that we simply cannot endure another round of welfare-state capitalism.

    Oh, we will probably settle for that since our minds are so brainwashed it is hard to envision anything but a capitalist-based economy.

    But what happens when the pure capitalists inevitable overrun the people once again with their bribes of wealth and propagandized dreams of fortune?

    How hospitable will this world be after we are bought off to pleasure the ruling plutocrats' lust for wealth and power?

    Shit, man, people are still voting for these people! Most are adamant about repeating the state mantra that voting is some sort of social obligation or your personal franchise despite the endless amount of evidence to the contrary. The collective mind is locked down.

    As Jerry Munro stated, we need more tents, not less. Yet I read 75% of the people in the area of Vancouver want the tents gone. This is certainly one hell of a black comedy from where I observe.

    Are we ever remotely prepared for a revolution?

    As Emma Goldman said long ago,

    I am no longer so impatient with the American people. In fact, I rather understand how it is that people in America should still fail to grasp their bondage. Material comforts are not conducive to the awakening of the mind.

  • Christophe

    27 weeks ago

    George Orwells's books are a sober read

    But they have little to do with the Occupy movement. The utter poverty of the Industrial North was lifted by work and education. The Occupy people seem to be opposing work.

    Why is it that so many Canadians have forgotten that the best way to earn money is by working for yourself in some sort of enterprise? working for other people is a stopgap measure. We seem to have forgotten everything we ever knew about personal initiative.

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