A Better Life Foundation throws a Giving Tuesday party with Shane Koyczan, Jann Arden, artist Prudence Gogh, and more
The organization that works for food security in the Downtown Eastside commissioned an original artwork by Gogh that’s up for a raffle draw
Interdisciplinary artist Prudence Gogh created this piece to address the oppression that exists in the Downtown Eastside.
A Better Life Foundation’s Giving Tuesday party runs December 1 from 5:30 to 7 pm. The free event is open to the public; registration is at ABLF’s website.
A BETTER LIFE Foundation gets right to the point with the name for its annual holiday season fundraiser: Being Hungry Sucks.
By the end of this year, the local charity (which is partnered with Save On Meats) will have provided 2.8 million nutritious meals to residents of the Downtown Eastside. Besides food security, it also offers training and employment opportunities to women and children escaping violence, seniors, street-entrenched youth, people living below the poverty line, shelters, and Indigenous groups.
On Giving Tuesday (December 1), ABLF is hosting a (not so) secret party with a whole lot of highlights.
The live event features performances and talks by Shane Koyczan, Jann Arden, Save On Meats owner and ABLF founder Mark Brand, indie alt-pop musician Rich Aucoin, singer-songwriter Sophia Danai, and more.
The cornerstone of ABLF’s work is its Daily Meal Program.
“By providing reliable, regularly scheduled and nutritious home-made favourites including fragrant butter chicken and rice, beef Bolognese, pesto chicken penne along with a healthy variety of vegetarian options, we are helping break the cycle of poverty through food,” ABLF’s recent Social Impact Report says. “Answering the call for this basic human need provides the foundation we need to heal our communities. When people are fed, they can take their medication, seek necessary supports including filling out government assistance forms and engage education and employment and generally, take better holistic care of themselves with the energy they receive from food and with the time and resources saved from searching it out.”
For Being Hungry Sucks 2020, ABLF commissioned an artwork by Vancouver interdisciplinary artist Prudence Gogh. The organization mailed out prints to supporters and is giving away the original in a raffle draw to a random attendee at the December 1 event.
Gogh is a member of the Haíɫzaqv (Heiltsuk) Nation in Bella Bella.
“I created this piece to address the oppression that exists in our Downtown Eastside community in Vancouver,” Gogh says of the piece. “In giving light to people, the person in the painting symbolizes the individual (he/she/they/them) in our community, being lifted by the Raven for survival. They are dressed in a button blanket, with a cedar hat which represents medicine. The Raven, acting as a trickster for survival, gives to the individual and the community. When you’re being oppressed, the world doesn’t give back to you; it treats you as the other. This piece shines light showing the physicality of each being as present and existing.”
During the first wave of COVID-19, as other food providers were forced to suspend operations, many low-barrier food sources disappeared throughout the DTES. ABLF responded as an essential service with rapidly scaled food production, increasing the number of clients served and the size of meals. It also distributed face masks and hand sanitizer and, after contacting BC Women’s and Children’s Hospital, began cooking for five local firehouses.
With the pandemic hitting marginalized individuals especially hard, ABLF is seeking to raise $250,000, which will be directed to its meal program, its Food Waste Recovery Program, and a new virtual training program called Sharpen Up, which will help teach people to prepare delicious and healthy meals on a budget.
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