About Inn From The Cold

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Tuesday update -- we're open tonight, maybe closed for a while

Shelter is open again tonight -- our seventh night in a row. Possibly our last for a while (as always, to be confirmed each morning). Ten guests last night, ten and nine the previous two nights. Almost all familiar faces -- one new to the shelter, bringing the total number of individuals who have stayed at the Inn this season to 20: 18 men, 2 women.

Food continues to be outstanding and very much appreciated. Thank you volunteers and food committee people (and staff who often pitch in). Homemade lasagna and chicken cacciatore, turkey dinner New Year's Eve, lots of homemade soups.

Super supper crew -- not only did they serve up lasagna, salad and garlic bread for dinner, they prepared muffin batter from scratch for next morning and cooked potatotes and carrots to add to next night's stew



Fresh-baked muffins, bacon and french toast for breakfast
Breakfasts of muffins, eggs, french toast, pancakes, frittata -- all fresh made. And deserts have blossomed of late: homemade apple & berry crisp, almond roca, pineapple upside down cake. One guest is asking for a bigger belt! Our guests burn a lot of calories, just staying warm or cycling around collecting bottles (one man cycled out to UBC 2 days in a row hunting for empties). Typical men's waist sizes 28-32.




Pineapple upside down cakes delivered fresh to our kitchen 





















Special kudos to the volunteers doing the less glamourous aspect of meal service: dishes and wiping counters -- the kitchen is always left spotless and this goes a long way towards fitting in seamlessly with other parish activities. Tonight, we'll offer up good ol' beans and wieners, as the St Alban's Tuesday community meal resumes after a Christmas break, and many of our shelter guests will chow down there. We don't get full access to the kitchen until after 8 pm so we'll have a very simple meal.




Hockey is a big topic at the shelter -- the radio is tuned to the Canadian juniors or the Canucks whenever they're playing. A few of the guests watch the games at a nearby McDonald's -- one came over about 7 pm last night to tell us that four of them would be a bit late for dinner as the game was just in the third period. McDonald's is one of those places where many of our guests are able to spend some time without getting hassled, if they are reasonably well dressed and behaved. On New Years day the bottle depots were closed, so one guest spent the entire day at McDonald's: from the time he left the shelter till we opened again.

Weather is warming and we are OK for volunteers tonight and tomorrow morning, so if we do happen to open tomorrow, I'll be looking to fill shifts. Since the main holiday period is over, I'm going to revert to using the shifts people signed up for on a regular basis, so will likely contact people individually and try to avoid a spam message to many if I can.

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