Community Initiative in Toronto Helps to Ease Distress During Pandemic

By Neil Armstrong 

Photo credit: Danae Peart   Chefs of the community meals-to-go initiative are from left to right: Kareema Beckles of Taste So Good, Tony Scott, and Dwight  Boswell of Chalice Catering

A group of community members has started an initiative that so far has helped over 300 seniors, shut-ins and international students weather the coronavirus pandemic.

Led by broadcaster Elaine Thompson, with support from JN Bank, JN Money Transfer, Jamaican Canadian Association, and a team of volunteers they provided a cooked meal to 300 people over the March 20-22 weekend.

Thompson said on the first day they provided 50 meals, on the second, 100, and on the third, 150. They repeated this service to the same numbers over this past weekend, March 27-29.

Three chefs – Boswell of Chalice Catering, Kareema Beckles of Taste So Good Inc. and Tony Scott – prepared the sumptuous meal of chicken, rice and peas or mashed potato and a vegetarian meal.

Given the precautions regarding social distancing or physical distancing there were no more than five people in the kitchen, and 80 per cent of the meals were delivered while 20 per cent were for pickup.

Many of the seniors are not mobile so the three drivers who volunteered to deliver the meals did so on rotation. The number of drivers subsequently increased to at least six.

“We gave them their list and the area, they picked up and they delivered. It’s been really, really phenomenal,” said Thompson.

She said they would evaluate each week to determine whether or not to continue on the following weekend.

On March 23, the Government of Ontario announced that only essential services should remain in operation. Food delivery is an essential service.

Thompson said the initiative falls under that classification and it helps that they have a public health official onboard their team – Sylvanus Thompson of the JCA who is an associate director of Toronto Public Health -- to ensure that social distancing and other protocols were being followed in the kitchen.

However the JCA is closed to the public and therefore is not operating business as usual.

“This project targets a specific group and is a special initiative outside of that criteria so we are permitted to go ahead.”

Thompson said that as a non-profit community organization the JCA already had a list of vulnerable seniors and works closely with the coordinators of Jamaican international students so it was easy to identify who needed help.

People also found out about their initiative through word of mouth and social media – “It’s 50:50, fifty per cent found us based on the word being out there and then the other fifty per cent would have been existing folks who are challenged that we know of.”

Thompson said some of the Jamaican international students were due to go home but are stuck here.

“Some of them are supposed to be graduating this spring but there’s a lot of uncertainty; a lot of them are in limbo right now. They have limited resources so we’re trying to stand in the gap,” she said, noting that there are about twenty students.

Photo credit: Danae Peart     Chef Dwight Boswell of Chalice Catering preparing meals for the community initiative

Danae Peart, co-coordinator of the meal initiative and one of the volunteer drivers, went to deliver a meal to a student at York University who was on the phone with her mother who lives in Jamaica.

The mother thanked Peart for taking care of her child in Canada and they both were very appreciative. A similar gratitude was expressed by many of the seniors.

Scarborough, Markham, Etobicoke, North York and Brampton were all areas serviced by the drivers.

Peart, who works in the heath sector, said what she realized from this experience is that seniors don’t eat a lot; many were willing to leave some of their meal for the next day although they were offered three days of food.

“Our Caribbean seniors are very vulnerable,” said Peart, noting that most are by themselves, did not marry, or their spouses are deceased and it does not seem that they have familial connections.

In some instances, their kids are also in need and the seniors are living in low-income housing.

Peart said self-isolation is a serious issue for seniors because for some of them just walking to the shopping mall “is a little pep in their day and now we’re telling them they can’t go out.”

[This story was published in the online Gleaner on April 6, 2020.]