VANCOUVER—A Downtown Eastside drop-in centre is offering lessons in social justice.
Groups of teachers or students visit The Door is Open twice a month to serve meals and learn about Church teaching in B.C.’s poorest neighbourhood.
“Living in suburban Cloverdale, it’s hard to have a sense of the real poor,” said Jason Borkowski, principal of Cloverdale Catholic School. His school’s staff served soup and sandwiches at the centre Jan. 23.
“We’re here to grow in our understanding of what it is to be poor and to be one with them. Maybe it will make us appreciate what we have a little more.”
There are soup kitchens in Surrey and Langley, but The Door is Open offers a chance to serve both the poor and the Church, he said.
Typically one group of teachers and one group of students participate in the program each month. Michel Gloanec, a religious education consultant for Catholic Independent Schools of the Vancouver Archdiocese, coordinates the schedule.
The next groups scheduled were teachers from St. Michael’s Elementary Feb. 10 and students of St. Thomas Aquinas Regional Secondary Feb. 19.
This January was the first time Cloverdale Catholic School teachers have volunteered. Borkowski said he received “a really positive reaction” from his staff.
All morning the teachers chopped vegetables, cooked soup, and assembled sandwiches for the lunch rush. When the guests came in at 11 a.m., they served the food and sat down with them.
The teachers then participated in discussions on Catholic social teaching, took a walking tour of the Downtown Eastside, and finished the day with Mass.
Ian Dailey, a Grade 4 student teacher, considered the program a great way to answer Pope Francis’s repeated calls to reach out to the poor.
“It’s all too easy being a Christian and going to church every Sunday, reading from the Bible, and praying the rosary every day. You’re not living Christ’s message if you’re not helping others.”
Tino Varelas, a program coordinator and an active volunteer, said teacher and student groups have been reaching out this way since September 2013.
“The thing that’s important about this program: it’s education about the Downtown Eastside and getting rid of some of the misinformation people have.”
An unemployed Romanian engineer was among those the teachers from Cloverdale served.
“There is lots of discrimination in society, and as a foreigner, I feel that,” said Ion Beza, who immigrated to Canada with an engineering degree from France over 15 years ago. He worked in the U.S.A. for several years before his work visa expired, then returned, and has so far been unable to find work.
“On the other hand, the volunteers are making an exceptional contribution. At the high end, there is discrimination; at the lower end, there is compassion. That’s my experience,” Beza said.
He’s been coming to The Door is Open for about one and a half years. “I’m not religious at all, but we have a kinship at a human level. I value that very much.”
