Green Coast Rubbish was proud to participate in Christmas in the Streets on December 23 where a number of volunteers from the community came together to spread love, togetherness, joy, gratitude, sharing and tradition with Downtown Eastside residents in Vancouver.
“Christmas in the Streets is a tradition that I started five years ago, where I showed up to Main and Hastings on Christmas Eve to hand out food and hot beverages to the homeless … since no one should be alone at Christmas,” says organizer Crystal Moseley.
“Each year there are different people who come out to volunteer … it’s pretty beautiful in that all these strangers come together,” she says.
After a night of true community Christmas spirit, donations to residents included around 1000 sandwiches, thousands of fruit and water bottles, hundreds of cups of coffee and hot cocoa, socks, warming blankets, muffins and more.
Christmas in the Streets was supported by the staff at McQuarrie Hunter who donated money to go towards food for the event and some of whom came out with their families to volunteer; Loblaw’s City Market in North Vancouver who donated almost 200 pounds of fresh fruit; Obsession Bikes who donated the use of one of their tents for the event; and United Gospel Mission who lent their brewers and tables.
“Our team was happy to come out and volunteer for this worthwhile event,” says Eamonn Duignan, President & CEO of Green Coast Rubbish. “It means a lot to join in and hopefully help make Christmas special on the Downtown Eastside.”
