The Compass
On Sunday, June 3rd, Clarkson Road Presbyterian Church had a pair of guest speakers who preached on Psalm 22 as a way to reflect on the work of the Compass. Unfortunately, I didn't have access to their written work for posting to the sermon archive. Instead, I include here an article written by Ande MacDougall-Clumpus for a journalism class while he goes to school at Dalhousie University in Halifax. We had intended to place it in the newsletter, but due to size and space restrictions we could not do it justice. As such, here is the article in its entirety for the entry in last week's Sermon. --The Rev. John Crowdis
Driving down any residential street in Lorne Park, a community in Mississauga, Ontario, one will see three-story houses with two-car garages and manicured lawns; it is difficult to spot an estate with a value of less than half a million dollars. SUVs, BMWs and Audis fill the driveways in these neighbourhoods, and children wearing designer clothes populate the local schools. To anyone passing through Lorne Park, the idea of a food bank would be ridiculous, for there appears to be no signs of poverty. But Isabella Cunningham, a resident in the community, knows that this is not the case.
“It’s surprising. Not everyone in Lorne Park can afford to have food,” she says. Cunningham is a director for The Compass, a food bank and community centre located in Lorne Park. An accountant by profession, she deals with the financial needs of the food bank and works to raise money for it.
The Compass was initiated in 2002 by local churches, one of which Cunningham is a member of. While its primary task is providing food to needy families, Cunningham says that it is more like a grocery store than a food bank. “They have a very unique way of doing it, in that they give the person food vouchers and allow them to shop for themselves,” she explains. “They go into the store once a week and take their food voucher in with them, say it’s for one-hundred dollars, and they take a buggy and they go around and they pick up what’s there and what they can use.” The items for sale, such as soup, vegetables and diapers, are priced “very low,” and the money spent on the purchases is deducted from the shopper’s voucher. The shopper can keep coming back until the voucher is used up. In order to receive a food voucher at The Compass, families must qualify with an administrator, who performs a detailed screening to determine their needs.
In addition to providing food, The Compass is a support centre for needy families. It has English-as-a-second-language courses, kids’ programs, a drop-in centre for coffee and breakfast and counseling services with a social worker. The majority of the employees, such as Cunningham, are volunteers, but the social worker and several administrators are paid. Cunningham says that between one-hundred and two-hundred families use The Compass, and the number continues to grow. “It’s both the awareness of it and the need for it that keeps increasing.”
The Compass provides all of its services for no charge, and relies primarily on donations from the churches within the area, which sometimes creates problems. “There is great difficulty in the summer months when food goes down and they really don’t have the money. Because it’s depending on the churches for revenue, churches have a tendency to give more towards the end of the year, because that’s when their biggest collections come in.” To solve this problem, Cunningham says that some churches set an annual budget for The Compass and give on a monthly basis. She is trying to get her own church- Clarkson Road Presbyterian Church- to do the same, and will bring the issue up at the annual meeting.
For Cunningham, working in The Compass has taught her a lot about hidden poverty in the wealthy community. “If you drive up to Compass and you’re driving a big car, don’t assume you don’t need it.” She adds that the Compass often deals with people who have lost their jobs and are on the brink of bankruptcy, and their expensive car is all they have left. “We shouldn’t be judging people on what they look, or what they drive, at all.”
Driving down any residential street in Lorne Park, a community in Mississauga, Ontario, one will see three-story houses with two-car garages and manicured lawns; it is difficult to spot an estate with a value of less than half a million dollars. SUVs, BMWs and Audis fill the driveways in these neighbourhoods, and children wearing designer clothes populate the local schools. To anyone passing through Lorne Park, the idea of a food bank would be ridiculous, for there appears to be no signs of poverty. But Isabella Cunningham, a resident in the community, knows that this is not the case.
“It’s surprising. Not everyone in Lorne Park can afford to have food,” she says. Cunningham is a director for The Compass, a food bank and community centre located in Lorne Park. An accountant by profession, she deals with the financial needs of the food bank and works to raise money for it.
The Compass was initiated in 2002 by local churches, one of which Cunningham is a member of. While its primary task is providing food to needy families, Cunningham says that it is more like a grocery store than a food bank. “They have a very unique way of doing it, in that they give the person food vouchers and allow them to shop for themselves,” she explains. “They go into the store once a week and take their food voucher in with them, say it’s for one-hundred dollars, and they take a buggy and they go around and they pick up what’s there and what they can use.” The items for sale, such as soup, vegetables and diapers, are priced “very low,” and the money spent on the purchases is deducted from the shopper’s voucher. The shopper can keep coming back until the voucher is used up. In order to receive a food voucher at The Compass, families must qualify with an administrator, who performs a detailed screening to determine their needs.
In addition to providing food, The Compass is a support centre for needy families. It has English-as-a-second-language courses, kids’ programs, a drop-in centre for coffee and breakfast and counseling services with a social worker. The majority of the employees, such as Cunningham, are volunteers, but the social worker and several administrators are paid. Cunningham says that between one-hundred and two-hundred families use The Compass, and the number continues to grow. “It’s both the awareness of it and the need for it that keeps increasing.”
The Compass provides all of its services for no charge, and relies primarily on donations from the churches within the area, which sometimes creates problems. “There is great difficulty in the summer months when food goes down and they really don’t have the money. Because it’s depending on the churches for revenue, churches have a tendency to give more towards the end of the year, because that’s when their biggest collections come in.” To solve this problem, Cunningham says that some churches set an annual budget for The Compass and give on a monthly basis. She is trying to get her own church- Clarkson Road Presbyterian Church- to do the same, and will bring the issue up at the annual meeting.
For Cunningham, working in The Compass has taught her a lot about hidden poverty in the wealthy community. “If you drive up to Compass and you’re driving a big car, don’t assume you don’t need it.” She adds that the Compass often deals with people who have lost their jobs and are on the brink of bankruptcy, and their expensive car is all they have left. “We shouldn’t be judging people on what they look, or what they drive, at all.”
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