Keep your ear to the ground...for the weekly transmissions from the mothership...
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JUNE 17th 2005
well thanks to a whole lotta supporters, SOUL KITCHEN 2 was a smashing
success.
we raised $700, which will keep PFF going for another six months! we'll be
stocked on food, containers and utensils to provide meals to people living
on our city's streets. thanks to everyone who came out to the event as well
as all the acts who played for free --Divine Play, Jumbo, Tom, Mysterion,
Nikki, Steph -- and of course, Clinton's for providing the awesome venue
free of charge! and last but not least all of the PFF volunteers who worked
together to put this fundraiser on. we threw a wicked jam y'all!!!
we also got a few boxes of canned goods donations. we're stocked for beans
and rice for while at least! everyone had a good time, the beats were
bumpin, the drinks were flowing (drinking for the homeless, yea!) and a good
time was had by all.
once again we are SO pleased with the outcome, it was truly a collective
success!
much love,
parkdale food front
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JULY 25th 2005:
Hey friends,
We haven't sent a pff update in a while, hope everyone is well and having an awsome
summer! Life is kickin' with parkdale food front, one of our special volunteers,
Lara, has left us for 6 weeks to teach english in Korea- we miss you Lara!! She is
sending us some wonderful and hilarious stories of her adventure.
Last week one of our friend's donated us a bunch of fruit, and it worked out really
well-cut up water melon great idea for the heat! I think we will continue it
through the summer. thanks kim!
We have changed locations of our kitchen to the beautiful Urban Cottage just north
of bloor, finally lots of room to work our magic!
Until next time, pff sends you love and have a great summer!
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MARCH 15, 2005
HELLO TRUSTY PFF SUPPORTERS...
its been a looooong time since we updated, i had some trouble accessing this email account but its all sorted now...
So, since we last wrote PFF has been written up in Shameless Magazine and we've gotten some response through that from people who want to get involved or donate stuff. thanks so much to our new supporters!
Its been a bit of a slow month, with the weather being so all over the place, there are less people around so we cut the amount a bit for now. We started going out earlier to see if more people were around city hall but the ban has effectively removed the people who used to sleep there. its very
sad and speaks volumes about our city counselors and unfortunately it says nothing good about them! however we still find people out and about, its just not as centralized as it once was when we could find so many people on the city hall grounds.
On a more upbeat note, we will be planning our next fundraiser soon so keep your ear to the ground for another delicious Soul Kitchen party, where like the last one, 100% of the money made will go directly toward PFF's food outreach services. anyone who went last time knows its the party to be at
this spring! i mean whats better than partying and knowing you're helping out an important cause right?
For anyone who wants to help us out, we are all set right now for people to give out food but we really need food donations, especially rice and beans as well as juice boxes and fruit. because we have little money until the fundraiser, we'll be operating on a super tight budget. anything helps...
however in about a month i'm sure we will need more people to hep prepare and hand out the meals, cause we'll be increasing our volume of food once again as the weather improves and more people are out and about.
thanks for the many ways you all support PFF. this is truly a collective effort!
in solidarity,
parkdale food front
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JAN 24th 2005
hey y'all
so this was our first week out since city council decided to ban people from sleeping at nathan philip square. there were considerably less people there and the few that were there did not have their usual camp set up but just had blankets. there were police everywhere but mainly because there was a power outage. the few there said the cops didn't bother them. there were lots of people in various nooks and crannies along king, queen, adelaide and richmond.
thanks to a new volunteer lee who now makes some delicious indian lentils each week and donates the dish to us to give out. it makes for more variety in the meals we distribute. and as always we've got the veggie stew, bagels and drinks.
this week we will be dropping off tons of clothing donations to the 519 community centre at church and wellesley...they run a number of dropin programs and will get the clothes to people who need them. if anyone has stuff they want to donate, please let me know by wed so we can make arrangements to pick them up.
only a little over a week left until ann leaves for india, so paul will be cooking the rice and christian has offered to do some of the grocery shopping. for the next few weeks, we'll be cooking at lara's and maybe other locations until we can resume at the usual headquarters.
right now we seem to have enough people cooking and handing out food but if you or anyone you know wants to get involved, check out the list of ways you can help on our website. we really need food donations right now, specifically beans and veggies to put in stews. and big sacks of rice...
stay tuned and stay warm...
parkdale food front
------------------------------------Yo YO!! Happy New year!!---------------------------------------------------
JAN 2, 2005
PFF in the house!! this is my first update in 3 months!! It feels great to be back with the greatest crew, and to meet all you new fine folks who started volunteering while i was gone. Thank you so much everyone!
So this week, hardly anyone at Nathan Phillip Square. Unintentionally, (but probably subconsciously), the girls went in one car and the boys in another. We thought that they wouldnt even be able to figure out who should get out of the car to hand out the food... But, we were wrong, they kicked are asses, handed out all the food, and when we met up they needed more and went back to king st.! good job boys, sorry we under estimated your capabilities. We had three left over, which Lara took to her school the next day to give to some of the kids who are in need of a healthy meal.
I think thats it for this week.
peace.
pArkdaLefO0dFront.
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DEC 27th 2004
[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[ hey gang ]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
well its been a couple of weeks since our last update...hope everyone had a happy solstice and merry christmas with friends and family!
and GUESS who came back into town from the sunny land of costa rica, on christmas day?!
NAT!!!! welcome back, we're happy you're back to suffer this icy winter with us ;p
we've recently decreased the number of meals we're giving out (about 20 now), depending on the weather, cause as it gets colder more people move off the street and into shelters. two sunday's ago it was too cold for the few people we did see to even have theri hands exposed to eat. they just wanted to stay in their boxes and tarps, which is understandable. we always have listings of helters and places to get free food on us if anyone asks and we will be encouraging people to go inside on the severely cold nights.
what we are focusing on is winter clothing and types of food (ie: granola bars, friut, juice etc) that people can hold onto and eat later. we are getting tons of emails from people who want to donate clothes and in the first couple weeks of january we will be attempting to collect it all. hilltop elementary school in etobicoke did a clothing drive and we got 3000 pieces of clothing from them! other people on our list and beyond are doing mini clothing drives among their friends...its really great to see everyone
getting involved! we would ask that you launder the clothes before donating them and if possilble separate them by season.
in light of the recent natural disaster in asia, we are thinking about ways that we at PFF can contribute to the cause...since we have so many clothes on the way we were tossing around the idea of only keeping the winter gear and donating the rest to a relief organization. please everyone think of the ways you can help with this because it is such a large scale devestation right now, the coutnries affected really need some help. next week we'll post some releif groups that you can donate money to if you have the means. that is what is really needed right now.
thanks for all your support people, you really are all contrbuting to PFF's success, whether you organize a drive or simply read our emails and sperad the word. we're amazed at how far reaching word of mouth has been for us!
please feel free to post on our forum if you have any feedback or questions for us. all of us at PFF wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous new year!
[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[parkdalefoodfront]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
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MON DEC 6TH, 2004
Hello again PFF people...
Our circle of support is ever expanding! This weekend we had some new food from some great cooks as well as some vegan soup donations from a volunteer who works at the Big Carrot.
Tonight was a cold one and there were less people out than usual. By 7pm many were asleep and so we're altering our game plan slightly with the change of season. Because we cover only very visible areas, there are understandbily less people than in the summertime, and as people move into warmer areas and out of the cold programs, we need to adjust accordingly. We will be distributing slightly less food and making increased efforts at collecting WARM CLOTHES to distribute. So please, if you want to help PFF out this winter, you can easily do so by organizing a clothing drive, big or small, it doesn't matter. Winter gear for people sleeping on the streets is a matter of survival, not simply comfort, so we hope you'll do what you can here.
Its now the holiday season and there are a lot of charities out there asking for donations as this
is often a particularly difficult time or homeless and other marginalized groups...but there are a number of ways to support PFF and they are accessible to everyone. Whether you have money and no time or time and no money, we'll put it to good use!
Don't forget to refer to our website to find out other ways you can help out. You can also find awesome vegan recipes for your holiday celebrations, whatever they may be and even add your own two cents in our guestbook and forum!
Keep Cozy!
parkdale food front
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SAT DEC 4th, 2004
Hello PFF crew and supporters!
Well a bit of a delayed update but here you are...
Last week was pretty quiet around Nathan Phillips Square but driving around afterwards we found lots of people along Queen and King Street.
This week we have a new addition to the PFF menu, from a new volunteer. We'll have a pot of dhaal to put over rice, a nice hearty and nutritious lentil dish for the people. We also got a donation from a PFF supporter working at the Big Carrot, apparently they always have vegan soup and stew
left over that staff can take home. So it'll be donated to us now!
We'll need to get the donations here for heating up and packaging so if anyone can volunteer about half an hour driving time (2 stops, one central, one in the east end), let us know.
Today we did a donations run to PARC, the recreation centre for psychaitric survivors and street involved people in Parkdale. What an excellent group this is, i went in there and it was packed with people of all ages, communtiy cooking going on and reggae blasting from the speakers. and its
all run by community members who have survived the psychiatic system. Anyways they were happy for the donations and they always need more. Especially winter gear!
Ok we'll see some of you tomorrow, and for the rest of you, thanks for your continued interest and support. Please keep us in mind when you clean out those closets! Feel free to contact us with any ideas you have for getting involved...any way you can, it all adds up to make PFF what it is!
Thanks to you all and stay warm and cozy this blustery weekend!
Parkdale Food Front
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MON NOV 22, 2004
hey everyone,
Well last night went well. We had another new volunteer join our gang last night and it was much appreciated. As well, a previously new volunteer joined us for a second time last night-yeah Christian I'm talking about you-that's just awesome that you're willing to donate your time to help us out especially when some of us get cranky and need a break from time to
time(hee hee).
There was no evidence of the rally when we arrived at nathan-except a man was handing out bags of apples and when he saw us he ran over and asked us to hand them out along with our other stuff so that he could run over to the church to meet up with the rally crew (we accepted the apples of course). In terms of the meals we ended up having a few left over, but that's okay, it's
better than running out before we're finished.
Once again Paul and his mom whipped up some little marvels in the kitchen, this time they mixed it up and made some vegan chocolate chip cookies-you guys are so awesome. Well as expected they were a great hit, most people were asking for more-especially the pff volunteers(opps did I say that). See recipe below!
That's it for this week, hope to see you all there next week. PFF
THIS WEEK'S FEATURED RECIPE! courtesy of paul and marie...
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons margarine (8 tablespoons is about ½ cup)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 cup dark chocolate chips
24 cookies 20 minutes 10 mins prep
1. prehead oven to 375F degrees.
2. mix flour and baking soda together.
3. cream sugar and margarine.
4. once creamed add liquids.
5. add dry stuff and mix.
6. add chips, stir.
7. put 1 tsp of batter on cookie sheet (2 inches apart).
8. they will spread!
9. bake for 5-10 minutes (until light brown).
Visit the PARKDALE FOOD FRONT at www.pff.bravehost.com...for weekly updates,
interesting links and tune into our forum discussions around homelessness,
community organizing, veganism and other issues of people power!
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MON. NOV. 15th, 2004
nothing like warm vegan stew on a chilly autumn night!
Hello again...
Well tonight we had quite a crew, to say the least! A bunch of us gathered at PFF headquarters for a photoshoot of us cooking...the pic will accompany the article on us in Shameless Magazine, coming out in this winter. We were quite a crew, five of us in our tiny kitchen, posing for the cam! A few key people missed the shoot due to work or not wanting to be in the photo. Which is ok, but just wanted to mention that not all the hardcore every week PFF crew are in these pics. However we will get a couple good photos to put up on our website, which will be nice.
We are in need of donations, especially of canned foods, winter gear (esp gloves) as well as new or lightly used (and clean!) socks. People ask us constantly but we don't have them unless their donated.
So this week, why don't you all RAID YOUR CLOSETS FOR WINTER GEAR TO DONATE...!!!
Also if anyone works in a bakery, restaurant, cafe, etc. and you have bread or something else (vegan of course) left at the end of the day, we would love to be able to distribute that to hungry people. Please contact us to make arrangements.
Ok until next week...
parkdale food front
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MON. NOV 8th 2004
Hey PFF-lovers!
Ok well tonight we had so much food that there was stuff left over after doing Nathan Phillip Square, King, Queen, Spadina, and Bathurst! But not to worry it isn't going to waste, we will make sure it gets out to people in the next day. All we have to do is re-heat and re-package the stew.
We had a special treat tongiht courtesy of Paul and Marie...vegan muffins! We were very proud of them as it was their first time attempting vegan baked goods. They were still warm when we hit the streets tonight...Thanks guys :) We also had apples, bananas and of course our regular hearty portions of stew on rice, bagels and juice.
We are starting to get more donations in and are delivering them to PARC right now, a community-based group run for and by psychiatric survivors in Parkdale. They are currently in need of sheets, blankets and winter clothes. We are also in need of any winter gear donations to offer people while we're giving out the meals.
More good news: Lara is currently organizing a food drive among her small class of high school students and they will be donating all the vegan-friendly food to us and the other goods to the Daily Bread Food Bank. This comes at a good time as we have now run out of food donations from Soul
Kitchen but luckily still have money from the funds raised to maintain everything we need to keep running for another few months. Also a little bird told me that there is another fundraiser being planned on the downlow by a certain PFF member, a little different from Soul Kitchen but promises
to be just as fun and successful. Stay tuned for more info on that...
Next Sunday, the core group will dawn our finest duds for a photoshoot to go along with an article on PFF for Shameless magazine. Shameless is one of Toronto's newest and hottest magazines and the next issue will have a profile on PFF....exciting! We'll keep you posted on when to pick it up hot
off the press.
Every week there is at least one person out there on the street who says something really nice to us, i mean something genuinely kind-hearted...tonight there was one regular who said that we (PFF) has
earned his respect and not because we give him food but because we are human beings who treat him like a human being. Its important for us to remember these moments, especially when the world seems hopeless or its inequalities to massive to bear, we can hold these moments of humanity up and use them to motivate ourselves. Motivate ourselves to do whatever we can to turn these isolated instances of humanity and community into the everyday, by any means necessary.
Thanks to you all...
parkdale food front
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TUES NOV 2, 2004
Hey PFF supporters!
Hope everyone had a great Halloween...PFF was out on Halloween night, doing our usual route with the usual crew. Speaking of crews, anyone who's interested in coming out with us sunday evenings, either regularly or once in a while, please email us. We have a good size crew but when people have
other places to be, we sometimes fall short. So even if you commit to once a month it would be a big help for us all here at PFF.
Well this month PFF will be enjoying our 1 YEAR ANNNIVERSARY! We can hardly believe it ourselves, that every weekend since last November we've been out there distributing meals. For those who have put in all the hours, we should all get together and celebrate all the time, love and energy we put into
this project...any ideas?
Winter is fast appraoching and we'll be collecting and distributing winter gear again...i know half of you will be buying new winter coats this year and/or have at least one old jacket you'll never wear again stuffed in the back of the closet. Put it to use! Give it to us! So we can give it to someone who needs it! We'll pick it up or you can drop it off at our central headquarters (email for more details).
Ok until next time, stay warm and give thanks!
PaRkdALe fOoD FRoNt
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TUES OCT 12, 2004
Hi everyone!
well its been a while since the last update as there has been much change in PFF...we're still out every weekend cookin up the good stuff! we're still running off the money from the fundraiser, Soul Kitchen a couple months back and its about that time to start doing winter clothing drives. So start digging around in those closets for the winter gear you never wear that could provide some much needed warmth to our neighbours living on the streets this winter. in a couple short months we will be upon a season during which people sleeping in subzero temperatures without adequate clothing/supplies can easily freeze to death in their sleep. so please, lets get the ball rolling on winter gear, spread the word, gather some stuff and email us --we can pick it up from you if necessary.
As most of you already know, three of PFF core members have moved to Costa Rica and they are missed. the latest report from them tells us they are safe, sound, living in treehouses and learning how to farm the land...we wish them all good things! nat is one of the founding members of PFF and we
miss her lots! lynn and josh joined us last year and have been some of our most dedicated members.
Now that its getting darker earlier, we will have to adjsut our outreach time. usually we meet at about seven but as we learned last winter the earlier the better cause as might falls people seek the warmth of sleeping bags and boxes, trying to sleep through the bitter cold. so starting this coming weekend we'll aim to be out there for 6:00. we need more hands to give stuff out also, usually there is a crew of about eight and with three core members gone, we need other people to step up. remember it doesn't have to be every weekend, your committment can be as short or long as you want it to be.
If you have any questions you can either email us here (it will take a few days to hear back).
Hope you all had a happy harvest, may you all be safe, warm and healthy this coming winter!
PARKDALE FOOD FRONT
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WED AUG 25TH, 2004
Hey Parkdale Food Front supporters!
Because of you, thats right YOU, and all of your wonderful friends who attended the first ever SOUL KITCHEN fundraiser for PFF...we now have a huge bin of canned goods and $600 !!!!
Thanks to everyone who attended and the generous support of local artists, performers and businesses, PFF now has funds to continue distributing nutritious meals to people living on our downtown streets, for another 5-6 months!
ALL of the money raised goes toward buying bulk rice, chickpeas, veggies, fruit, juice and bagels for the 45 meals each week that our volunteer collective cooks and distributes.
Please read the list of supporters, cause these people are the ones who came together in the spirit of PFF' s cause --free nutritious food --to make this event the smashing success it was!!!
Thank you to:
Clinton's for donating the location
Fressen Restaurant
Shanti Baba
Stainless Studios
Iodine
Pusher
Fluffgirl Burlesque
Volunteer Promotions
Dynamic Duo (Tarik and Jumbo)
A Man Called Warwick
Elvis!
Mysterion
Sistinas
Steph
Kitomo
and of course all of the volunteers of Parkdale Food Front!
YOU ALL MADE THIS EVENT UNFORGETTABLE !!!
Well you've all had a little taste of the SOUL KITCHEN and know what PFF is all about. Stay tuned for more fun times for the cause in a few months time. Just a little bit from a lot of our fine selves is all it really took....
Love and respect to all who contributed what they could.
<<parkdale food front>>
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MONDAY JULY 12, 2004
Hey everyone
Well the summer has seen an increase in the amount of people in the high traffic areas of the downtown core, expecially Nathan Phillip Sqauare, Queen St and King St.
Where we used to get to the people on all of these streets from Yonge to Bathurst, we now only have the resources to cover Nathan Phillips Square --and even then we often run out. People are hearing about us and showing up sunday evenings. this has resulted in a bit of resentment from some of the
folks who are more permenanent residents at that location.
Since we can't pick and choose the people we give to and have to work on a first come, first serve basis, the only answer is to increase the numbers of meals we bring for outreach.
So...
We need to increase our access to resources through donations and food drives. if anyone is interested in helping out with this or if anyone has any hookups with companies that are possible donation sources, please let us know.
We're going to be looking into funding and donations so that we're not scraping together the resources on a week to week basis...anyone wanna work on a fundraiser? like a party?
Also we would love to be giving out more fresh fruit to folks so if anyone has any fruit hookups (ie: food terminal), please let us know.
Since there are so many people wanting to get involved, we're gonna work out a schedule so that everyone knows whats going down when and also so that everyone who wants to be involved gets to be involved, and those who are out every weekend, get a break once in a while.
The schedules will be posted on the website www.pff.bravehost.com in the forum ...but first we need everyone to email back or call us and let us know how often you are available...once a month, twice a month, every week...and what you would like ot be doing (cooking, assembling food or handing it out).
Also let us know if you have access to a car cause every week we need to have one to get all the food there.
Ok people thanks for the ongoing support and involvment of everyone. This project belongs to everyone who has put in their time and energy to the cause.
You can contact either sandy or nat but emails will probably get a quicker response :)
Thanks y'all :)
Peace,
[[[[parkdalefoodfront]]]
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MONDAY JUNE 14TH: continue to grow...
Into the summer we go!
Yesterday, was a warm night, handed out over 35 servings of rice, stew,
juice, bagels and apples. We just recieved a large donation to parkdale food front which will be
paying for our next round of 500 containers, THANK YOU !!!! Today we will be making the last run of clothes until we move into our new places next month, Thank you For the donations, again. And to the regular CREW, awsome work, we are all still kickin' and we'll keep kicki'n as ParKdAleFoodFront continues to grow and make a difference. YOu guys all ROCK!!
remember:
www.pff.bravehost.com
peace,... to the start of a wicked summer.
love,
pFF
ps: we are thinking of starting another day this summer, maybe thursday
during the day?? Welcoming any new volunteers!!
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MONDAY JUNE 7th: Sunny days and stew...
Well everyone, we managed to get out thirty three meals tonightm which wegot rid of at city hall alone!
Thanks to all the stewds and stewdettes who've been keeping PFF standing strong!
We got a cash donation for more containers, some cans of beans and an excellent chef rocked the kitchen this weekend...not that all our cooks aren't badass!
Ok so only a few more weeks until the PFF mothership will be changing locations as dijital hors in stereo are dismantling the homebase. so keep your ears to the ground for all the changes in the wind.
We'll need to do a donation run soon so clean out your closets people. stuff is piling up in the mothership. anyone with a car free this week? Like thursday or friday?
Hope everyones enjoying the sunshine out there :)
peace,
PFF
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MONDAY MAY 31st, 2004: happy summer aLL!!
Hope everyone is doing very fine. we all are, and so is parkdal;e food front.... SOooo, the summer is here. and we NEED HELP!!! There are many more people outside!! For the last 2 weeks, we have made double our usual amount of food.... We still need more!! If we are going to cover a whole area, we need to cover a WHOLE area, and not have to let people down... so this weekend, sunday, we are hoping to have another crew, and double our doubled amount of food.!!
So if you want to help hand stuff out, give us canned beans... anything else, please let us know ASAP, so we can arrange....Hopefully we can get a couple more regulars to come out with us on sundays... its only a couple hours of your time, and all the people are really awsome!
Hope to hear from some of you soon.!!
And dont forget to check out our website www.pff.bravehost.com (we have a new one being made it will be www.parkdalefoodfront.com, but look at the old one for now)
:) peace. parkdaLefoodfrOnt.
Ps... the dIjitaLhors pad (PFF's homebase), will no longer BE, as of July 1st. sad... but room to grow for everyone. change is good. We will keep you updated on where the new parkdale food front home base will run out of.
BYE!
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APRIL 16, 2004
its been a few weeks since we updated on here. many apologies to anyone expecting to see what we've been up to.
spring is here, time to clean out your closets and cupboards and contribute to the redistribution of wealth in the city. in other words, give us some stuff!!! 
with the time change, its still light when we get out and people are awake and socializing on the streets. now that spring has sprung everyone is more chill and we've met some really nice people along, some regulars and many new faces.
we're known as the stew people, the dready kids and the vegetarians...!
the past couple of weeks ahve been really great, having gotten donations of both money and food, we are happy to say that PFF is alive and kickin.
we're gonna take the city by storm this summer! if you wanna be a part of this, just contact us.
we ALWAYS need the stuff on our wishlist so don't forget about us.
to more sunny days...
PFF
_____________________________________________________________________
APRIL 1/04
hey people
go check out parkdale food front's new website...
its still in the making but there's everything we need right now, including a forum...so we can all communicate as a group beyond the weekly emails. we'll still do the email list but this forum will be a way for us to all organize....
this past sunday, there were but four of us on a windy night. at city hall we ran into a youth church group from north york giving some stuff out but they're only there once a month...
on foot we covered some distance and gave out all of the food. there were tons of people out, we could've used more food and more people.
we really need people to come out this weekend, there's gonna be a shortage of the core group so get in touch if you wanna come out.
also sunday night you are all invited to sandy's b-day party at red beet lounge, inside fressen restaurant. there's a $3 cover that goes to the musical talent....its well worth it!
ok til next week...drop by the site, signthe guestbook and start talkin on the forum. PFF now has a little corner in cyberspace.
happy spring y'all!
parkdale food front
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NOV 21 2003
Hi friends and friends of friends...
Ok Parkdale Food Front Had its first meeting tonight. There were seven of us here and more who called to express interest in helping out. We're finally putting our thoughts into action here through this neighbourhood group...you don't have to be from Parkdale to participate. You just have to want to help people have warm clothes and food.
Here's what we discussed:
- that we'll begin by collecting and distributing winter gear. we'll see how that goes and start making food once we get a feel for doing this type of outreach. There's a lot we want to do and many different directions this project could move, but for now we'll stick to the food and winter gear
- we need to travel in groups of two to three to avoid being overwhelming to people. We're not out to embarass anyone or make them feel like charity cases, we just feel the need to help redistribute resources. However we must understand that some people may not want to accept what we're offering and thats cool too.
- we'll start with queen street from about roncesvales to john st but people are welcome to cover other areas, as well. as of right now we're thinking of thursday nights for outreach but we're open to having people do different nights as our schedules allow.
- people can commit on a week to week basis. We can keep in contact via weekly meetings (email us for details) or our email updates. We will put out weekly emails to keep everyone posted.
- we will organize clothes and food drives that will be categorized into things like: winter gear drive, canned bean drive, soap drive, shoes drive, N E W socks drive, etc... Even if we get more than we can distribute ourselves, we can donate them to various organizations.
- once we get a little more organized we'll have flyers with our purpose and contact info on them and flyer and talk to people in front of restaurants and to queen st shoppers on weekends, encouraging them to contribute to out drives.
- we're working on getting a website together.
- the food we'll distribute will be vegetarian for a number of reasons
- we have a list of food banks and shelters that we'll have available for people
HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED
There are a number of ways you can help out:
1. Join our email list so you can be updated on our meetings, food and clothes drives and outreach. We will send out only one group email per week. If you do not have access to email please call us
2. Gathering donations: start a donations box at your work or school and either bring it to a meeting (you're responsible for making sure they are clean and useable) or we can come pick it up
3. You can drive places to pick up donations or drop off food at the outreach starting point. Only a few of us have access to a car so far.
4. Give us money. No really. But only if you can. We're serious...five bucks will buy five pairs of ski gloves at dollarama. There will be little costs here and there like buying plastic cutlery and a bundle buggy to transport food while walking. we will all be contributing what we can out of our pockets for the food.
5. Clean out your closet and donate lightly used clothes, boots, jackets, etc...if you're not using it, its not useful
6. Planning and preparing food
7. Distributing food...for people who are comfortable approaching people and possibly being shot down.
8. Flyering
9. Spread the word...forward this email to anyone you think may be interested and i'm sure we'll think of more by next week!
>> > Looking forward to however you choose to get involved!
>> >parkdalefoodfront@hotmail.com
>> >
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