Faith feeds body and soul

By SHAGORIKA EASWAR

It is a busy morning at 5n2 Kitchens, the place fairly humming with activity as volunteers cut, chop and prep ingredients for the hundreds of meals that will be served that day and frozen for delivery the next day.

“It is always busy, just a little bumpy this morning as one of the volunteers hurt her knee and couldn’t come,” says founder Seema David. “And I’d defrosted 40 pounds of ground beef and several cases of chicken! I had to call my husband in to help!”

On the menu that day, pasta sauces – one with vegetables, the other with ground beef – noodles, fried rice, roast chicken. The menu reflects the ethnic mix of the neighbourhood and there are always vegetarian options. Rice-and-peas on this particular day as there are lots of cans of coconut milk that are nearing their expiry date that need to be used up.

“We have to be flexible when we work with rescued and donated food,” says David. “But every meal is freshly prepared with fresh ingredients.”

In any given week, the team prepares 1200-plus meals. They have partnered with Toronto Community Housing, Salvation Army and Second Harvest, among others, supplying to after-school programs, crisis intervention centres, seniors’ associations and community organizations that serve people with mental health issues or addictions. They see young professionals with university degrees who are finding it hard to make ends meet. Out of the Cold program recently got in touch to see if they could come in and observe how they operate their kitchen.

5n2 was inspired by the Bible story about Jesus feeding a crowd with five loaves of bread and two fish.

David also refers to the family’s experience in their early years in Canada. Originally from Chennai, India, David and her husband Roopan, both MBAs, had lived and worked for 15 years in Dubai. David, as a high school art teacher and Roopan, as a successful marketing man. The two moved to Canada in 2007 for better prospects for their children. They put all their savings in purchasing a home, not anticipating the difficulties they faced in finding meaningful employment. Roopan was unable to find a job for the first three years while David landed a temporary secretarial position at UofT. She spent $15 each day, just on transit, but the agency she got the job through told her she was getting paid to gain Canadian experience. Then she got hired as assistant to the dean at George Brown College, a much better paying job which she confesses she was not trained for.

“I couldn’t take notes, I had no keyboard skills. I still don’t know what they saw in me, but the dean was the most wonderful person to work with.”

The family budget was tight. Her salary which once used to provide the little extras was now paying the bills. When Roopan got a high-paying contract position at Mark’s Work Wear-house, she was able to relax a little, but then after a couple of years, the contract was not renewed and they were back to square one.

After paying the mortgage, she once had seven dollars left in her account.

“I’d buy groceries with my credit card and pay the balance with my next salary. We managed somehow. I now see it as a miracle – that was 5n2 working in my home, stretching our meagre resources to feed everyone.”

On her way to work and back, David saw the homeless in downtown Toronto. During her time at George Brown, she led her department’s efforts to raise funds for United Way. That’s when the idea of a soup kitchen took root in her heart. 

“People want to donate to big-name charities, or they bake trays of lasagna and banana bread and take it to feed the homeless downtown, and all of these are wonderful things to do,” says David. “But there’s need right here in our own neighbourhoods. The immigrant profile in Scar-borough is different – you won’t find too many people begging on the streets, the suffering is silent.”

Everyone she talked to about setting up a soup kitchen said it was a great idea that required a big infusion of funds.

“I said to God, ‘I’ll do it when you give me the money’,” says David.

When Roopan inherited close to $100,000, she saw it as a sign.

With no thought of setting any of the money aside for the family for a rainy day, she registered 5n2 in 2013.

The family, aghast at first, soon realized she was serious.

The kitchen at her church did not have public health approval and David set about to get one. When they outgrew that space, they moved to a unit in Ellesmere Road.

She funded the kitchen and then the renovation of the new space and the purchase of refrigerators, freezers, stoves, pots and pans, etc., with the inheritance money. But the money ran out after three years and they had to turn to public and private sector donors. People drop off 50 or 100 dollars or even bags of potatoes, whatever they can help with.

As for those who question the need for food banks or believe that they encourage free-loaders, David has this to say: “Food banks and soup kitchens are supposed to be emergency measures to tide people over difficult periods. People don’t want to be in this situation. Over the five years that we’ve been serving meals, I have seen a few – a minuscule percentage – that perhaps didn’t need to be here, but we leave it to their conscience because we are doing this for the rest for whom the need is real and immediate.”

But at the new location rent had to be paid. She had to sign up for wi-fi for the volunteers and for pest control. Tensions at home were rising.

“They were rebelling. Roopan, who would never have questioned me if he’d had a steady job, called our older son Deep to ‘come see what mom was doing’. Deep said he was washing his hands off the project, that he was walking away. Our daughter Diya and youngest son Roshan said I was unreal, that I reside in the clouds, and was trying to be a saint.

“I wasn’t trying to be a saint, I was well aware of the fact that we needed money to run our own home, but I was determined not to touch the money we raised for 5n2. I don’t touch a dollar of the donations, I don’t take a salary. The volunteers don’t get paid. Hundred per cent of what we raise goes to the kitchen. Those who donate, know there’s no room for anyone to take anything out for themselves.

“We recently did an exercise to put a value to the hours everyone puts in and it is half a million dollars annually – if we were to be paid.”

So how do they pay their own bills?

Deep gave them money he’d been saving for a condo and David used that to renovate their basement. The family now uses it as a rental and that pays their mortgage while she puts in 10-hour days, including on weekends.

“The rent money is a blessing, but there are days that I haven’t stopped to have even a cup of tea at the kitchen. I make one and then reheat it six times in the microwave because I keep going off to attend to something. Then I come home and have to go clean the basement apartment’s toilet and kitchen if a renter is moving out and a new one coming in. I do get upset on some days, but I then I tell myself that this is what allows me to focus on my kitchen. And Roopan has taken over the cooking at home, he’s such a massive support.”

It’s relentless, backbreaking work and David admits to being exhausted at the end of a long day. And that’s when she puts in more hours responding to e-mail and voice mail enquiries, accounting, scheduling shifts of volunteers, making lists of what is required. A kitchen requires food-quality gloves and handwashing soap, too, not just grocery items, as she points out.

It is stressful. She sits bolt upright some nights, realizing that she forgot to put the meat out to thaw or to do something else.

“But I can’t turn back from this work, it’s a commitment, a calling. Every day there are people waiting for food – even in rain, in a snowstorm. And every day we come in because we love coming in. The work here is hard and unpaid, there’s nothing to keep the volunteers here other than love. I’m just the stitch that holds it together.  I don’t want to be so fatigued that I risk burnout.”

At the larger kitchen space, they are able to use more rescued food and ingredients.

“Did you know, 33 per cent of cooked food goes waste in our city?” asks David.

She wants to turn the facility into one that makes more sauces and gravies. David is also looking at starting training programs to teach young adults to read food labels for nutrition and how to budget for food.

 Her Christmas wish list includes the possibility of employing at least three full-timers to take on some of the work. And two airconditioning units. The team worked in a non-air-conditioned space over the hot and humid summer. Used vehicles would help with food deliveries.

To sponsor a food delivery program or to donate, visit 5n2kitchens.com.

• Grant’s is proud to present this series about people who are making a difference in the community. Represented by PMA Canada (www.pmacanada.com).