‘It’s going to hurt’: Kitchen feeding hundreds of Surrey’s most needy at risk of closure – BC

A program that provides daily meals to hundreds of homeless and low-income people in Surrey could be scrapped by the end of the month due to a funding shortfall.

The Surrey Welcome Hub dishes out about 200 breakfasts and lunches every day, both to people staying in the Surrey Urban Mission’s shelter and to members of the community struggling to make ends meet.

“We rely on this for breakfast and lunch and dinner on Sundays, It’s going to hurt us pretty bad,” said client Gary Garrett.

“We get people that come and help us out on the street, but not as much as this does.”

The program operates primarily on funding through BC Housing, but Surrey Urban Mission spokesperson Janet Brown said the non-profit is now facing a $1.7 million shortfall.

If it can’t find that money by the end of the month, it will still be able to feed people staying in its 16-bed shelter, but meals for the broader community would be scrapped.

“These are members of the community who just can’t seem to make ends meet. We serve a lot of refugees, a lot of refugee families,” she said.

“If we can’t provide meals to the roughly 200 people every day, where are those people going to go? Who is going to step up and fill that need?”

Brown said homelessness in Surrey is up 65 per cent in just the last two years, but that the Surrey Urban Mission has been forced to reduce its services as funding has dried up.

In September, the organization was forced to close down its hygiene facility that provided showers, washrooms and laundry to people living on the street.

Surrey Coun. Linda Annis described the Welcome Hub as an “essential service.”

She said the city needs more facilities like the hub, rather than fewer — places where people who are homeless can go to get a meal, do laundry or connect with health and social services.

“It’s absolutely horrific that we would even be contemplating this,” she said.

“I also have a huge concern about people having to shoplift or do whatever they have to do to get food. Desperate people do desperate things.”

Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon said the province is providing the Surrey Urban Mission with $1.9 million in funding this year, up slightly from its previous commitments.

“We have continued their funding. In fact this year we have provided additional funding not only to support the program, but we also provided them some additional capacity as well as dollars to cover staff resources,” Kahlon said.

“A request to double that amount is just not realistic in this environment … We are in the middle of a trade war, we have lots of pressures.”

Brown said that funding is critical to the work the urban mission does, but is not related to the Welcome Hub program, and isn’t available to keep it running.

In the meantime, Brown said she’s hoping the public can step up to help.

“As homelessness goes up, services in the community seem to be decreasing. They should be increasing to meet the growing needs,” she said.

You can find out more about the Surrey Urban Mission or how to donate at the organization’s website.

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