Thank you to everyone who has donated their time and support to Holy Trinity’s COVID relief efforts. Holy Trinity continues to play an important role as a centre of compassion and support in the midst of this epidemic. We are thankful for the outpouring of donations that you have very generously made available to folks who need them.
We are now serving 150-200 meals a day, and making food available to take away at our West door between 11-1pm daily. We have also distributed over 70 tents, and many more sleeping bags, hygiene items, and cold weather gear. We see how essential these items are becoming for survival as folks on the street, who are facing gridlock in finding appropriate accommodations or places to isolate. We are also seeing more and more housed people who do not have access to food coming for assistance. As almost all services are shutting down, or operating with limited means, these folks need our continued witness and support.
I want to take this time to thank our committed “working from home” volunteers Maggie, Stella, Jim & Merylie, Diane, Bill & Nancy, Jennifer & Susie and family, Sinclair, Alejandra & Thea, Sara, Lesley and the many others that have prepared food at home, or have brought it down during our safe drop off time. I very much appreciate the coordination that folks have undertaken to ensure that each day we have enough to feed all who come to our doors.
Additionally, the HT staff and volunteers who come in each day to support this essential relief work have displayed remarkable commitment to the values and mission of our Holy Trinity community. They continue to live our radical welcome, even into the age of social distance. Our weekly volunteers are Ben, Theresa, Katerina, and guests from St. Andrew Kim Korean Catholic Church, Leigh and Sandra from Toronto Urban Native Ministry, Oliver Roberts, and Jo Delaney.
The outpouring of support has been phenomenal, including the donations that have come through the Gofundme campaign that Lesley Norton of Trinity Square Cafe has been running. I see that many HT families have donated in addition to their regular contributions to our community. Thank you very much for your generosity in this time, and your trust in the work that Christ has given to us as a parish.
We continue to push City governance to act to provide for those who are bearing the extreme disadvantagement of service closures and absence of a coordinated response for the poor and disenfranchised. Each day we demonstrate the purpose of community acts of love and mutual support through our very simple project of feeding the people. Each day that response grows stronger in its resolve that a better and more just world is possible through the labour of our hearts and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
In the midst of all that has happened, we continue to smile, laugh, reflect, and lean in to relationship with one and other. Please keep our staff, our work, and all people in your thoughts and prayers, as we look to a more just and loving world in each sunrise.
Peace and Blessings,
Zachary Grant
