how can we continue to provide this care? with difficulty.
city of toronto-funded drop-ins are among the few easily accessible physical spaces in this city that provide trauma-informed low-barrier services to people living in precarity — with no questions asked. yet drop-ins themselves are struggling with a number of challenges including low wages for staff, sky-rocketing rents, staff burnout and inflationary food prices.
drop-ins provide a warm meal
one of the key services drop-ins provide is a warm meal. on our shoestring budget, we have to find ways of feeding 80 people on a daily basis. while relying heavily on the food bank system, many drop-ins, including syme woolner, raise funds to ensure that no one goes hungry. the food that is provided through the food bank system has to also meet the needs of an ever-increasing line of families who use the food bank weekly.
the syme woolner neighbourhood and family centre recently lost five people who were regular participants at its drop-in program, says sharmini fernando, executive director. supplied
in 2021, we served 5109 households which is a 45 per cent increase from the previous year. this number translates to 450 households that are food insecure every month — just in our tiny neighbourhood. the working poor make up these households, some are the very frontline staff who work at drop-ins and other frontline services throughout the city; they are, for the most part, racialized women, underpaid, with an average hourly wage between $18 to $22.
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