We are all in this togther

A week ago, I wrote about a small pantry on the corner of Vine and 7th — a humble wooden structure with a simple invitation painted across the top: Give what you can, take what you need.

I shared how I had walked past that pantry for months without realizing the extent of the hunger around it. How it took finally seeing people walk away empty-handed — an older couple speaking Ukrainian, a man living out of his van, a woman I recognized from the neighbourhood — to understand that this wasn’t a symbolic gesture of generosity. It was a lifeline.

This week, I want to share what has happened since.

A Good Beginning — And a Hard Truth

In the first two days, the Cathedral community responded with warmth and generosity: $50 in cash donations, a dozen loaves of bread, and some non-perishables dropped off into the clear plastic bin outside my office and in the narthex. By Monday morning I was able to restock the pantry with your gifts.

It was a good beginning.

And yet within hours the shelves were empty again.

Throughout the week I walked past the pantry at different times of day. I saw the same heartbreaking pattern: people arriving, hopeful, lifting the door, and finding nothing.

Some came with backpacks.

Some with shopping bags.

Some with the weary, steady gait of people who have been here before.

An elderly woman sounding Eastern European, soft-spoken sat on the bench beside the pantry while I restocked. She murmured “thank you” in broken English. When I offered her the empty bag I had used to carry the food, she clasped it gratefully, as though I had handed her something far more valuable.

I saw others too:

People who were clearly unhoused.

People who looked like they were coming home from shift work.

People who would not be noticed in a grocery store or at a bus stop.

Not one of them should have to search for food in one of the wealthiest cities in North America.

A City Where Hunger Is Increasing

Two major reports released this week in the Vancouver Sun, on CBC, CityNews, and Global News confirm what the pantry shows us every single day: food insecurity in Vancouver is rising sharply.

Not just among those who are visibly unhoused.

Not just among those on disability or pensions.

But among people who have jobs. People who pay rent. People who are doing everything “right,” and still cannot afford groceries.

No one should be hungry in such a rich society.

And yet they are.

A Theological Imperative: Daily Bread Is Not a Luxury

As Christians, we pray Give us this day our daily bread. Jesus places food — literal food — at the centre of our spiritual life, not as a metaphor for piety but as a reminder of God’s deep concern for human bodies.

In Scripture, hunger is never treated as a private failing.

It is a community responsibility.

The prophets cry out when the poor are neglected.

Jesus feeds crowds without asking for qualifications.

The early Church organized itself around shared tables, ensuring “there was not a needy person among them.”

Food justice, ensuring that all people have access to enough nourishing food to live, is not political ideology.

It is discipleship.

A society that tolerates hunger among its elders, its newcomers, and its working families is failing at something fundamental. And the Church, when it sees that hunger, must not…cannot look away.

What We Can Do — Right Now

Your gifts last week made a real difference. Each loaf, each can, each bag of rice went directly into someone’s hands or onto someone’s plate.

This ministry is small, simple, and immediate. It meets hunger today not after committees, not after budgets, not after debates, not after applications.

But it only works if we keep feeding it.

I am asking again, gently, but urgently, for your partnership.

If you are able, please bring:

• canned beans, chickpeas, lentils
  
• soups and stews
  
• pasta and sauces
  
• rice
  
• canned tuna or chicken
  
• oatmeal, cereal, shelf-stable milk
  
• nut butters
  
• anything nourishing, simple, and easy to prepare.

Place them in the clear bin outside my office or in the narthex. I will continue doing drops through Christmas on behalf of the Cathedral community.

Every item you give will be in someone’s hands within hours.

What We Must Do: Going Forward

But charity alone will not fix the deeper hunger in our city.

We need to advocate  as Christians, as neighbours, as voters  for a society where:

• elders do not go hungry;
  
• working people do not choose between rent and groceries;
  
• newcomers are not forced to depend on chance generosity;
  
• food is understood as a human right, not a commodity.
  

The Church has a voice. And we must use it.

Not to shame, but to witness.

Not to scold, but to shine a light.

Not to accuse, but to insist  with the confidence of the prophets and the compassion of Christ that a city as wealthy as Vancouver can and must do better.

We Are All in This Together

The pantry door has a small sign painted on its side: We’re all in this together.

It is not sentimental.

It is simply true.

When one person is hungry, our whole community is diminished.

When one person is fed, our whole community rises.

Thank you for walking this path with me.

Thank you for seeing what many never notice.

Thank you for helping ensure that, in this corner of Kitsilano, no one walks away from that little pantry disappointed.

Let’s keep it going.

Let’s keep feeding one another.

And let’s keep imagining and working toward  a city where everyone has daily bread…every day.