VANCOUVER, B.C. – Turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes. The holidays may be over, but this past Saturday, VCC had a gift for its neighbours in the Downtown Eastside – a Christmas lunch with all the fixings.
January can be a difficult time for Downtown Eastside residents as holiday giving winds down. VCC’s downtown campus opened its doors and dozens of VCC staff and students volunteered along with generous sponsors to pitch in for this annual event.
In total, the VCC team roasted 66 turkeys, mashed 400 lbs of potatoes, poured 3,500 cups of coffee, and served 200 litres of ice cream to serve lunch to more than 1600 people. Another 250 meals were donated to a nearby charity. Meals were also served on environmentally-friendly sugar cane plates.
“It was an amazing coming together of the diverse VCC community. This year we had an especially large turnout of students volunteering from culinary, ESL, and deaf and hard of hearing,” says Rachael Des Lauriers, event organizer.
Among those volunteering were 33 health students from VCC who offered free blood pressure tests, which proved to be popular with the Downtown Eastside community.