Small Group Sandwich Run

On Friday I went on the smallest Sandwich Run ever. The group we took out consisted wholly of three strong. There were supposed to be seven, but four of them went AWOL. It was the first time there were actually more leaders than volunteers. So Joe and Darlene left and Jenn and I took the group consisting of Jeff, Andrea and Debbie out. They were from Heart Lake Baptist Church in Brampton. Jeff and Andrea had been out many times before.

We did the Spadina/Queen St./City Hall route. They made 70 bag lunches which was great. Summer is much busier than the winter and we had been running out regularly before getting through City Hall.

The small group was really efficient. That was nice. We covered both sides of Spadina as we headed south. Andrea and I were on the east side while the other guys covered the west. There wasn't too much dawdling like we have with larger groups. We still spent time chatting with the folks we met on the street, but it didn't drag on like it sometimes can when more people are involved.

Raymond, Robert and Dan were camped out in their usual spot on the median on University in front of Osgoode Hall. It was our (Project 417's) third time out this week, so we only chatted with them briefly. They're a great group of guys who've just hit a rough patch in life. I know they'd like to get off the streets. Raymond says he's contacted the Streets to Homes guys so hopefully he's well on his way. His daughter in Ottawa just had twins. I hope he gets to see them sometime soon.

We met a few people on the path south of the Courthouse through to City Hall. I think some were stragglers from the Osgoode Hall meal program which gave out food earlier in the evening. I saw a fair number people coming out of the building when I rode by at around 6:00 p.m.

At Nathan Philips Square we saw the regular guys at the northwest corner. I don't remember most of their names unfortunately, only Richard and Oz. They hang out together near one of the sets of stairs that goes to the upper level walkway.

Normally we run out of lunches right around here. But, since the Heart Lake group made so many we had enough to visit the rest of the people around the southeast corner of the square. There were at least ten people camped out in this area. They were a varied group. Mostly men, but a few women too which is sort of unusual to see. There normally aren't a lot of women on the streets. Only a few. All different backgrounds as well. But mostly Caucasian and some native Canadians too.

One woman we spoke to said that her and her husband had a place lined up to go to in the next month or so. That's good. The colder weather isn't too far off. It's best to try to stay out of it if you can.

All-in-all it was a really good run. We had some meaningful conversations, satisfied a few hungry stomachs and stayed out of trouble. That's all you can really ask for.