Powell Street Festival Feast for All Elli Taylor, CCAP Assistant
The Powell Street Festival drew about 20,000 people to the streets around Oppenheimer Park on August 3 and 4. In solidarity with people living in the park, organizers chose to hold the event outside the park, rather then displacing those with no where else to go. CCAP hosted a booth at the corner of Jackson and Powell. We collected donations and invited festival-goers and neighbours to sign a petition in support of people in the park. We also coordinated a peer program to provide hydration and a needle clean up in the park over the weekend. The festival included lots of gourmet food trucks and booths. Out of respect for those staying in the park, we helped to organize free food delivery on both Saturday and Sunday so that people who couldn't afford Festival food wouldn't feel excluded, as well as providing healthy food security. It was wonderful indeed to provide free food for the people sleeping at Oppenheimer Park during the Powell Street Festival. Samuel Dharmapala, Wendy Pedersen, and others put out the call for donations so that over 300 people were fed well! Sam estimated that it cost $2.50 for each meal of vegetable fried rice, curry chicken, curry potatoes and Dal curry. It took a feWtvolunteers to serve the food and luckily, I was one of them, meeting and greeting people as they grabbed some nutritious and tantalizing food. Sam spent 7-8 hours prepping and cooking the food in his own place. He said he has a small kitchen, but he was able to provide so much food that we did not run out while serving it. People expressed happiness and the weather was beautiful. It was amazing that along with the expensive food truck food there was this free alternative. There will be more food events where people will be serving food for free. Look forward to these posted clearly at the park soon.