Our Place Society prepares to serve over 600 Thanksgiving meals this week

Victoria’s Our Place Society is expecting to serve at least 600 individuals with hot, special holiday meals this week. 

The Thanksgiving meal will take place on Wednesday, October 7th and is meant to help those experiencing homelessness, poverty, isolation and food insecurity in Greater Victoria.

The meal will be served to attendees at the Our Place Community Centre at 919 Pandora Avenue. 

According to Our Place Society, local and provincial elected officials and candidates who are participating in the upcoming municipal and provincial elections in Victoria, Langford and Saanich will be joining Our Place staff and volunteers in serving the meal.

The organization says that although the food is the catalyst for the event, the meal is about much more.

“Thanksgiving makes us think about home—about having a place where you are known, welcomed and know that you belong,” said Janice Kalin, director of philanthropy at Our Place Society. 

“For many of the people who come through our doors, that sense of home and connection has been missing for a long time. We want every person who sits down for Thanksgiving dinner with us to know that they matter and that there is a place for them here.”

Though the Thanksgiving meal will be a special one, Our Place serves three meals a day, 365 days a year. 

The organization estimates it provides around 1,400 meals on a typical day. 

The meals that bring vulnerable community members through their doors allow Our Place staff to help them move toward greater stability, accessing health care, finding shelter or housing, reconnecting with family, entering recovery, finding employment or having someone they trust help them determine what comes next.

“Over the past year, we have focused deeply on what we can change,” said Kalin. 

“We can help someone move indoors. We can help someone enter recovery. We can help reconnect a mother with her children. We can help someone find meaningful work. And sometimes it starts with something as simple as a meal, a conversation and knowing that someone is in your corner.”

In addition to providing meals, Our Place Society operates programs and services across the capital region, such as emergency and supportive housing, street outreach, health and wellness services, seniors programming and long-term therapeutic recovery communities for men and women.

There is one more Thanksgiving dinner being served at Our Place this year on Friday, October 9th, which is sponsored and being put on by Dodd’s. That dinner will begin at 4:30 p.m.

Our Place Society Thanksgiving Meal

• Where: Our Place Community Centre, 919 Pandora Avenue
• When: October 7th, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.