Despite a tremendous increase in need, the poor in Clarkson/Port Credit continue to find food, attention and direction at the Compass. Words by Laura Schober
On a clear, sunny Friday morning volunteers at The Compass community outreach centre in Port Credit are preparing for the afternoon rush when they open at noon.
It’s the last day of the week for people in the community to shop at the Market Food Bank. By 12 p.m. a lineup snakes around the cafe counter and out the front door.
Outside, a woman in a wheelchair asks if I can open the ramp at the side door. I offer to find someone to help her and then make my way past the line, searching for an available volunteer among the sea of people inside.
As I enter the cafe area, a buzz of excited chatter ripples through the air. Groups of people, clients, wait for their turn to shop, sipping on coffee or tea. Tempting pastries are displayed on a back table along with pieces of pie, muffins, and cupcakes.
“Hello, can I help you?” I am greeted almost immediately by a female volunteer. I tell her about the lady in the wheelchair and two people overhear me and promptly walk over to the side door, lay down the ramp and escort the lady into the building.
I stand back as one by one, names are called out. A volunteer greets the next client and accompanies each person inside. Each month, a voucher is issued to families and clients can use it once a week to buy groceries and toiletries.
For low-income and homeless families in Port Credit, Lorne Park, and Clarkson, The Compass is more than a food bank. It’s also a safe place where people can meet friends, seek spiritual support, or access counselling services. It’s a little community centre where fourteen different programs are offered free of charge for clients. These include classes in computer literacy, English as a second language (ESL), and interactive workshops that teach clients the communication and life skills necessary for job interviews and managing their money.
In 2010, The Compass saw a 40 per cent increase in clients who accessed the Market Food Bank – a clear sign that the recession has not let up for the people who need their services.
Every Tuesday afternoon about 15 volunteers unload the new shipment of food that comes from the Mississauga Food Bank (which partnered with The Compass in May 2009). That’s where I met with two client volunteers, Sarah and Teresa (to protect their privacy, pseudonyms are being used).
Sarah, 46, has been a client with The Compass since 2008. Her husband of 20 years passed away in 2003, but she worked hard to make ends meet by working as a cashier at various retail stores. Things took a turn for the worse in 2007 when she suffered two heart attacks that left her unable to work.
“You think, ‘Ok, well it’s alright, I’ve got unemployment, I’m going to be fine,’ but very quickly it runs out and you realize what social services has to offer at under $600 a month won’t pay the rent – never mind everything else.”
After taking medical leave and quitting her job, Sarah began volunteering at The Compass a couple times each week to keep busy.
“The tedium of sitting at home was probably worse than the disease itself,” she says. “Whereas, by coming here and volunteering, I’m able to give back a little.”
Both Sarah and Teresa say there is still stigma towards the impoverished population in Mississauga. Like themselves, many clients at The Compass have a roof over their heads, but suffer from illnesses or mental problems that make it hard for them to work, or they may come from a traumatic environment where they were physically or emotionally abused.
“I think that, stereotypically, people believe that people who use food banks are homeless, they are drug addicted, or they are alcoholics,” says Sarah. “It’s just so much not that.” Teresa, 32, echoes that statement. “It’s people from all walks of life, and I think it’s
important for the community to realize that it’s not just a whole bunch of white trash people, because that’s the misconception about this place.”
The reality is that poverty doesn’t have a face to it, and as Sarah and Teresa point out, the people who walk into The Compass each week both fulfill and defy the stereotypes. Addiction, physical disabilities, and mental illness are significant contributors to street poverty and so sure, there are people who walk in with a bit of extra dirt on their shoes or unkempt hair, but most of the clients are well-groomed. In this mixed income neighbourhood hosting some of Mississauga’s wealthiest residents, The Compass provided food for approximately 1400 clients last year. Proving that poverty today can be found anywhere.
A registered charity, The Compass began as the collective effort of four churches – St. Stephen’s-On-The- Hill United Church, Lorne Park Baptist Church, St. Christopher’s Catholic Church, and Christ Church United Church and rapidly grew to include twelve member churches by 2010.
The effort started with the Social Justice Committee at St. Christopher’s Catholic Church, where Dr. Brian McGoey and his wife Elisabeth McGregor (Lis) were members.
Their committee pledged to help Mississauga’s marginalized community of low-income families and individuals. They found that many people were being turned away by churches because they didn’t have enough resources to meet the needs of the poor.
So McGoey and McGregor approached other churches in the community and were happy to find that these churches had the same idea of creating a collective, faith-based service to help the poor in south Mississauga. The vision for The Compass soon evolved and the centre opened shortly after Thanksgiving weekend in 2002.
“We wanted to find the underlying source, the cause of the person’s poverty, and try to solve it. That’s really what the goal is on an individual basis,” said McGoey, an orthopedic surgeon at Credit Valley Hospital who also co- chairs The Compass’s Board of Directors. “Really, we wanted to change their lives.”
Lis McGregor is a social worker and meets with each new client to determine what kind of help they need.
“Our vision was that they would have someone, right from the get go, that would listen to their story… they would know there was someone they could come and talk to if they ever wanted just to talk, or if they wanted help in any way,” said McGregor.
According to Compass General Manager, Elaine McCarthy, the spirit of human generosity and compassion forms a powerful bond between volunteers and clients.
“There are so many people here that society has pushed to the bottom of the list. And when you get to know them and you get to know their stories, there are so many heroes here, it is unbelievable.”
I agreed. There are little known heroes on both sides of the counter, at The Compass.
The Compass services 750 to 800 families per year and gives out 25,000 pounds of food per month to homeless and low-income residents in Mississauga. It hosts several annual fundraising events for clients, volunteers, and members of the community, including the Compass Christmas Candlelight Celebration and The Compass Walk or Wheel. The centre is always looking for more volunteers to assist with food donations, coffee hours, and programs. For more information, please call Elaine McCarthy at 905-274-9309.