Over dinner with friends a few weeks ago, conversation got around to how we navigate through life-altering crossroads. One friend shared advice that intrigued me about making decisions based on our values, not our circumstances. In difficult moments, certain decisions…
“Ugh! I am so full,” groaned a friend, hands on her stomach, lamenting that she had eaten too much. We were cleaning up from a fundraising dinner, having just served a hundred people who had worked up an appetite on…
Karen Giesbrecht, dietitian and food security coordinator with Union Gospel Mission in Vancouver, along with the Westside Food Collaborative and Kitsilano Neighbourhood House, recently released Food For All: Seniors’ Food Security in Vancouver’s Westside. The 29-page summary of a community…
While most of us are settling at home at the end of our work days, a few faithful individuals who have taken on the role of outreach workers – either paid or in a volunteer capacity – are just starting…
Karen Giesbrecht is the main author of ‘Anemic: Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation in Metro Vancouver: Who, How and What?’ Go here for the full 19-page report. We have all been part of conversations about how much life has changed…
Karen Giesbrecht and partners from different churches and supportive organizations have carried out ‘food asset and need scans’ for three neighbourhoods. Three weeks ago she wrote an overview, then West Side Vancouver and Downtown Vancouver. This week she focuses on…
Karen Giesbrecht and partners from different churches and supportive organizations have carried out ‘food asset and need scans’ for three neighbourhoods. Two weeks ago she wrote an overview. This week she focuses on on the West End and Downtown Vancouver…
Karen Giesbrecht and partners from different churches and supportive organizations have carried out ‘food asset and need scans’ for three neighbourhoods. Last week she wrote an overview. This week she focuses on the West Side of Vancouver and will follow…
Pre-pandemic, an estimated one in eight Canadians were food insecure, meaning they did not have the income to purchase enough food to stave off hunger, let alone support their health, make special food for a celebration or host friends for…
Karen Giesbrecht coordinates several community meals at churches around Vancouver. Some of the participants struggle with addictions, and she is concerned with the implications of easier access to marijuana promised by all levels of government. On a recent Monday evening,I…