Photographer with Zoom Lens Creates Discomfort at Christmas Day Dinner at Sally Ann

On Christmas Day, the Salvation Army, Harbour Light, on Cordova St. near Main in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside served their annual free Christmas Dinner to anyone who wanted it. The turkey dinner with all the trimmings was reportedly tasty, with pie for dessert.

A man volunteering as a server walked around squirting extra whipped cream on everyone's pie, exclaiming, "It's Christmas!"

Some people were uncomfortable with the newspaper photographer (above) with a long zoom lens.

The tension between the need of the Sally Ann for publicity and the need for the poor to have privacy is ongoing. A man in a wheelchair told me that at a previous Sally Ann Christmas dinner, he had put his hand over his face and asked a television camera man to stop taking his photo.

Salvation Army: Turkey with a TV Camera

Salvation Army Harbour Light near Cordova & Main St. on the Downtown Eastside served a full turkey dinner on Christmas day. There were volunteers of all kinds. There was even one boy about 13 years old serving from a steam tray. Another teenage boy was serving tables. There was a Jewish couple, Ezra and his wife, serving from steam trays. All the volunteers were friendly and warm.

The dining hall was full, with new people constantly coming in from the waiting room. The wait was about 15 minutes in the waiting room where they played Christmas music. There was a red banner at the front of the room with something on it about accepting "Christ", but there was not a heavy emphasis on religion.

There was the occasional double-dipper. One guy who looked downtrodden said he had come through the waiting room twice so he was on his second turkey dinner, but he was too full to eat a second apple pie. So he offered it to the guy beside him who thanked him a couple of times. Another guy eating a dinner asked a middle-aged male server if he could take a second dinner home in a take-out container. The male server said they occasionally allow that but don't like to make a practice of it; a little later, a female server gave him a second dinner in a styrofoam take-out container.

Everybody who ate dinner was handed a gift as they walked out the door. The gifts were things people could use, like winter gloves or socks. And the gift packages included a couple of candy canes, a mini chocolate bar, and chocolates wrapped to look like large gold coins.

The Salvation Army runs on government funding as well as donations. But the people serving were volunteering their time.

There was a television camera at the dinner for a while too. But not during the entire dinner.

Shoe Day at Sally Ann

A poster on the Downtown Eastside announced that if you arrived at the Salvation Army last Thursday wearing an old pair of shoes, you could exchange them for a "reconditioned" pair.

Some of the running shoes the Sally Ann gave away on Thursday looked new, some looked very slightly worn. There were running shoes for both men and women, and black leather shoes with thick rubber soles for men as well. There were free socks for everybody too.

But the shoe give away seemed to be an excuse for the Sally Ann to get your foot in the door -- so that medical personnel could get a look at your feet.

They had nurses inside and, according to the poster, a doctor. When people arrived, they were immediately asked if they wanted a foot bath. One woman said they cut the cankors off her feet. Another woman said they told her that he feet indicated that she might have diabetes.

If you didn't want a foot bath, they didn't pressure you; they let you go ahead into the free shoe section.

The poster was misleading in that it announced that people could come between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. to get the free shoes. Truth is, they didn't have enough shoes to last anywhere near that long. At 10:20, they were telling people that there would be none left by 1 p.m. One woman went in at about 10:40 and said she got the last pair of size 9 women's runners.

It wasn't too hectic inside the shoe give away room which generally functions as a shelter, because they only allowed five people in the door at a time. Everybody else had to wait in a line up on the sidewalk.

A few of the women trying on running shoes looked like they were a little high. A couple of the men were talking about criminal charges they or their pals were up on. One joked with the receptionist, "Do you charge by the meter or the foot?" She laughed, and he laughed even louder at his own joke.

I didn't see anybody leaving with major brand name running shoes on their feet, just the cheaper brands.

An older woman digging through boxes of shoes kept telling people not to dig for their own shoes, that she would do it for them. She seemed stressed.
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Speaking of charity:
United Way Implicated in "Political Psychiatry" Comparable to China

"Soup Nazi" Returns to Sally Ann Soup Truck

Last week, a BCTF member who teaches at the Downtown East Learning Center stopped at the nearby Sally Ann Soup Truck for the poor and had a bowl of soup. This raised questions about whether a working person should be using the free soup truck as a convenience. An article about this teacher standing in the charity soup line was reported on the Downtown Eastside Enquirer.

Last night she came back! On Tues. Oct. 2, the teacher once again lined up for a free bowl of soup. Since this unionized worker is taking soup meant for the poor and hungry on the Downtown Eastside, residents jokingly call her the "Soup Nazi".

BCTF Member Stands in Soup Line

It was the night before welfare day. Last Tuesday night, the Salvation Army Soup truck pulled up as usual to Main St. & Cordova at 9:45 to hand out piping hot soup and peanut butter and jam sandwiches to the poor.

A well-dressed BCTF member who teaches at the Vancouver School Board Eastside Learning Center for adults a block away, lined up for a bowl of soup. Several people saw her; in fact she said hello to a couple of people. She has been a VSB teacher in the neighborhood for years. She is middle-aged, a little on the heavy side, with short blond wavy hair.

"Those people make a fortune," exclaimed Serg, a Downtown Eastside resident, "and she's taking food from the hungry."

A couple of years ago, the media reported discussions in London, England of shutting down food lines for the poor due to widespread abuse. Working people were using them as a convenience, instead of cooking for themselves.

Truth is, virtually everybody you see at the Sally Ann soup truck on Tuesday and Sunday nights in Vancouver looks poor.

Other teacher-related articles on this blog:
Vancouver Teachers Demand Recycling in Schools
International Boycott of High School Diplomas Issued by the Vancouver School Board

Telus: asparagus and meatballs with a dash of political psychiatry

Last Tuesday was "Telus Tuesday". That's when Telus turns up at the Salvation Army on Cordova near Main to give the Downtown Eastside poor a good feed.

They served asparagus, "overcooked", a homeless man reported. And mashed potatoes. "And meatballs." The meatballs were good and they gave a generous helping of them, he said in a voice tone that sounded pleased.

And black forest cake. He described it as one of those "cheap" ones, but that it tasted good nonetheless.

The homeless man had enjoyed the lunch enough that he was talking about it to some friends about five in the afternoon. By that time, he was trying to figure out where to go for a free dinner.

Telus Tuesday, which comes every month or two and is not advertised, is a hit on the Downtown Eastside.

But Telus' reputation is tainted on the Downtown Eastside due to the fact that 20-yr. Telus employee, Allan Wong, was involved in the use of Chinese communist style political psychiatry tactics to deter political free speech by a Downtown Eastside resident. Although Wong's involvement in political psychiatry has been in his moonlighting role as a Vancouver School Board trustee, he has chosen not to entirely separate that role from his role as a Telus employee. During the two consecutive VSB terms in which political psychiatry was instigated and evidence of it suppressed, Wong had promoted himself to voters in the School Board election as a long term Telus employee.

According to Telus ads, "The future is friendly." But for people targeted by political psychiatry and tagged with life long libelous labels, the future is unfriendly.

Salvation Army: Hot Soup in a Five Week Welfare Month

A mob of people, roughly two hundred, milled around on the sidewalk around the Salvation Army soup truck last night. Every Tuedsay night, the truck pulls up in front of the Main Street court house, near the police station on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

People are entering the final stretch of a five week welfare month. The welfare cheques don't come out for another week, August 29th.

The Salvation Army truck --which is like a french fry truck with a small side window --came prepared. There was no shortage of food. People lined up for a bowl of vegetable beef soup with bread.; many lined up for a second bowl. They stood around talking and eating the soup as well as sandwiches which are given out at a table near the truck; usually the sandwiches are peanut butter and stawberry jam. A woman in her eighties showed up, as she regularly does, to hand out fresh baked raison bread and scones, slathered with butter, that she makes herself.

Being a pillar of the poverty industry, the Salvation Army would be aware of what a five week month is. Four times a year, the welfare month is five weeks long instead of four. It doesn't take a math whiz to figure out that that saves the government one welfare cheque per recipient annually. The Salvation Army gets government funding to help the poor; it doesn't operate strictly on charitable dollars as many people think.

Brian B. is well aware that the Salvation Army doesn't rely strictly on donations like those people toss into kettles at Christmas. He says that when he was homeless, he went to the Salvation Army and they told him to register with welfare so that they could bill the government for his bed.

Government funding to the Sally Ann raises questions about the separation of church and state. When you are given a bowl of soup at the truck, a polite man says "God Bless" with each bowl he hands out. When the truck first arrives, he says a prayer to the entire crowd. Occasionally, people eating soup are approached by young Christian women proselytizing.

But there is no doubt that the Salvation Army soup truck is a hit. People know it can be counted on to show up in front of the court house every Sunday and Tuesday night. And they show up too.

"Look at this," Serg, a Downtown Eastside resident, said as we walked down Main Street past the crowd by the soup truck last night. "This is the real essential service. Not Carnegie." Sarg was referring to the fact that the Carnegie cafeteria has been designated an essential service during the current strike by CUPE members who work for the City. "You have to pay for food at Carnegie. These people are here because it's free."

See other CUPE strike-related stories on this blog such as: Striking Librarians Should Look Up Fair.