Sandy Seymor has been eating Thanksgiving dinners at the Scott Mission in Toronto since she was 13, lining up for a plate of turkey and fixings, along with hundreds of others who are homeless or living precariously.
The 65-year-old woman said the Mission is like her home as it does not discriminate and makes her feel wanted.
“To have nowhere else to go on Thanksgiving, it makes you feel so empty, your heart just breaks, you know,” Seymor said.
She was among the at least 450 men and women who sat down at the Spadina Avenue shelter near College Street on the holiday Monday. While most gathered with family, she joined her Scott Mission family and was dining with her two brothers.
She said her other family makes her feel like an outsider looking in, which is why she stopped hanging around them. Seymor said she stopped going to family gatherings because it makes her feel like she is not loved but here she feels welcomed.
Feeling as if she was not wanted, Seymor said she attempted to die by suicide. It was the counsellors at the Mission who helped her, she said.
“I haven’t seen my grandkids in 17 years. I don’t get to see them, I’m not allowed,” Seymor said. She was filled with emotion and her eyes glistened with tears while talking about her life. When asked if she could use a hug, Seymor accepted without hesitation.
Christy Morrow, the Chief Development Officer at Scott Mission, said Thanksgiving is a special time for many in their community as it is getting colder, they have this vision of families and people gathering.
“This is their family, this is their community gathering, and so we try to make it as celebratory as we can,” Morrow said.
She said to everybody who comes through, leave with gifts. They were able to source some great hats and tote bags and other treats that people can take home and enjoy.
Morrow said this Thanksgiving traditional feast takes place every year.
“We are now almost 84 years old as an organization, and this has really been a huge tradition for almost all that time,” she said.
Morrow said as the cost of living has increased, and housing has become more unaffordable people often have to make choices between paying rent and having enough food on their table.
This is when Scott Mission and places like it step into that gap, to provide that difference, she said.
Morrow said the increase in costs has hit organizations like Scott Mission in three separate ways.
“The increase has gone up for the need and the demand for service, so we have seen 20 per cent more people asking to come to our food bank,” she said.
Morrow said she has seen almost a 25 per cent increase in the number of meals and demand for meals and they are also seeing the same in their clothing service.
She said the biggest increase in demand was for clinical counselling as more people are dealing with many traumas.
“Often people are stuck in cycles of oppression that can sometimes be generational,” Morrow said. “And so, we have hired two full-time clinical counsellors who can work alongside people and figure out where do they want to be.”
She said rising costs have affected everyone including the donors. The monthly donations on a rough average have dropped to $10 per month from $30.
“We are seeing a lot more seniors who live on fixed incomes come through the door. The numbers change, but we are seeing almost half of our food bank clients over the age of 60,” Morrow said.
Jhonnathan Meneses, a volunteer at Scott Mission, said he hopes to serve at the Mission indefinitely.
The Christian mission first opened in 1941, helping the lonely, the homeless and the hungry, offering food and clothing, while operating a men’s shelter. It’s on key holidays when the need becomes more acute.
On Thanksgiving, it served a classic English breakfast that morning to over 100 people with hot beverages, Meneses said. He said he got involved because he wanted to gain perspective and learn from other people.
“We all have a sense of purpose, and we all have a desire to find new meanings to things that we do,” Meneses said.
Alexander Ng, the direct response officer at Scott Mission, said there has been a rise in the number of people who come to food banks over the past three years.
“We’ve certainly seen also the stats that are published by The Daily Bread Food Bank of just the rise in food bank usage across the city,” Ng said.
He said he has seen it on their front lines, especially with families who have low-paying jobs.
“We serve a lot of vulnerable people that sometimes don’t know when the next meal is coming,” Ng said.
He said the people he sees who need help cut across all groups: “young and old people, single parents, immigrants, refugees.”
Ng said poverty and inflation are the root causes of food insecurity.
“The pandemic really affected the rise of (the) cost of living, and so it just made things worse, and I believe that really kind of tipped people over the edge,” he said.
Luz Flores, a Mission worker who has been there for 14 years, said it seems as if they started there yesterday.
Flores said people talk and cry which helps them find a bit of release, but it is not just about sympathy or empathy, but to “respect their dignity.”
The feast meals, prepared at the hub in Mississauga, included 70 turkeys, said Mike Marson, a worker at Scott Mission.
“It is part of the fabric of the mission to provide the Thanksgiving experience for people that are struggling with homelessness,” Marson said.
He said he loves serving people and believes it is so important to stay humble, grounded and connected to everybody in the community.
Seymor finished her meal and packed the rest for her hamster before heading off for her nearby seniors' home. She said it hurts her that she is not rich and cannot afford to take her family out for a nice dinner, but she would still want to see them.
“I know I’m not rich, I know I can’t afford dinner, and I know I’m on a pension cheque every month, it just hurts so much every year, and you just feel rejection,” Seymor said.
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