OUR PHILOSOPHIES
Our Food Philosophy
The belief that all people have a right to be well nourished and to enjoy the benefits of shared meals is at the heart of all our programming at the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House. We believe that food insecurity is fundamentally a consequence of systemic injustice and that the typical charity model of providing meals to “needy” recipients reflects and reinforces that injustice. Through our values and practices, the DTES NH challenges both the charity model and the systems that underpin it.
In the context of our own community, our food philosophy is also a response to an unfortunate paradox: despite the prevalence of nutrition-related (and other) health problems in the Downtown Eastside, much of the food offered by community meal programs is nutritionally inadequate. Refined starches, sugar, and chemical additives are commonplace; shelf stability and convenience regularly take precedence over flavour and freshness. With deep respect for the many DTES organizations and individuals working hard to respond to a variety of urgent needs, the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House has chosen to focus on fostering individual and community wellbeing through nutrition.
This choice comes with challenges. As a small organization with limited resources, we must pair our commitment to nutrition with a creative ability to stretch our food dollars. While this balancing act results in meals that are generally “budget-friendly,” we take pride in the fact that the food we share with our neighbours is also tasty, nutrient-dense, and, as much as possible, fresh, whole, and organic. Meal selections at our many drop-in sessions are informed and inspired by the different cultures and needs of community members, with our family and children’s programs taking extra care to meet the special nutritional needs of growing bodies.
A vital component of our programming—and our food philosophy—is education. Programs such as Kids’ Kitchen and Foodie Fridays provide opportunities for our neighbours to enhance their food-related skills and knowledge in a collaborative community setting.
By treating nutrition-focused learning and the sharing of delicious, healthy meals as a fundamental right, Neighbourhood House programming reaches beyond the more basic (albeit crucial) objective of alleviating hunger. We are deeply committed to our food philosophy, and we heartily welcome the support of friends inside and outside the community as we strive to put that philosophy into practice.
Our Operating Philosophy
At the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House, we embrace our community in its entirety: its beauty and harshness, its coherence and contradictions. We challenge the labels and stereotypes that are often imposed on our neighbours, choosing instead to see complex individuals living multifaceted lives.
In planning and delivering our programs, we strive to be, among other things, compassionate, inclusive, resourceful, and fun. We steer away from a hierarchical charity model, positioning ourselves not as saviours but, rather, as neighbours. Our aim is to offer quality community programming to Downtown Eastside residents, whom we welcome as the ultimate stewards of our organization.
At the same time, we are keenly aware and respectful of the serious socioeconomic barriers and physical challenges that many in our community face. While we have a special allegiance to those neighbours, we also heartily welcome individuals with greater privilege and resources to engage with our programs and, in so doing, to foster a more equitable and empathic society.
DTES NH Food Guidelines
Food allergens, diabetes, Hep C, HIV/AIDS, heart and stroke health are considered in our menu planning. Recipe ingredients are listed. We use only non-toxic cleaning products and purchase Fair Trade coffees and teas. We avoid refined sugars, processed foods, gluten, non-stick cookware, silicone, aluminum foil/pots/pans, plastics for prepping/cooking/ serving/storing foods and Eurocentric menus and soup, as it’s the food relentlessly offered to those living in material poverty. We take responsibility for educating existing and potential food donors about which foodstuffs are the ones on which our neighbours thrive.