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By Shari Narine
Windspeaker.com Contributor
CALGARY
Water is the source of life and no more so than during the hot days of summer.
With the temperature forecast in Calgary at 27 degrees Celsius today, and with this past week in the 20 degrees Celsius plus range, The Mustard Seed is desperate for bottles of water.
“(Water is) not something that people usually think about, but we’ve opened their eyes to this need,” said Diana Camelo, communications specialist with The Mustard Seed Calgary.
Many homeless people stop by The Mustard Seed’s downtown location and right away down the bottle of water they are given. As homeless people carry everything they own with them, work hard labour jobs, and walk long distances, the exhaustion kicks in quickly and the heat dehydrates the body. And for most staying hydrated isn’t a priority.
When temperatures were this high last year, says Camelo, about 150 bottles of water were handed out daily.
The Mustard Seed launched its bottled water drive last year. The public and businesses responded by donating about 3,000 individual-sized bottles. But handing out water from last summer to now has seen the stock depleted to about 100 bottles and The Mustard Seed has launched a second campaign.
The response has been good, says Camelo, who notes that organizations hosting big events have been donating their leftover bottles of water.
“Our aim is to get 3,000 and more. We don’t want to be in that situation again where we’re counting 100 bottles and we’re risking being out,” she said.
While the focus is on getting as much bottled water as possible, Camelo notes that at this time of year, donations decrease. The Mustard Seed could use more shoes, pants, and new underwear, all for both men and women.
“And hygiene products are also a big thing this time of year with the heat. We like helping our guests and clients feel their best and those hygiene products really help with their perspective on themselves,” she said.
The Mustard Seed operates a number of facilities and offers a variety of services.
An overnight shelter in the Foothills area sleeps 370 adults. The shelter serves breakfast and provides bagged lunches. The doors are closed during the day to encourage guests to seek employment. More than 40 per cent of those who use the shelter are employed, but cannot afford accommodations. When the shelter reopens in the evenings, supper is served.
The downtown location operates low income housing accommodations. There are almost 200 units in the 1010 Centre. Support services, including a wellness centre, are located at the downtown building as well. The recently opened wellness centre offers healthcare services, chiropractic, physiotherapy, addiction and mental health counselling. Also offered are employment coaching programs.
“The idea of the 1010 Centre is not only to provide affordable housing, it’s to support our residents with a number of different programs. So the donations also go to support those programs as well,” said Camelo.
Transportation is provided five times in the morning from the shelter back downtown, and in the evenings from downtown back to the shelter.
“We’re definitely more than a soup kitchen and somewhere to spend the night. It’s definitely very much a holistic approach,” she said.
The point-in-time count held in Calgary in October 2016 enumerated 3,222 people as homeless, 20 per cent of which identified as Indigenous.