The Tyee’s Christopher Cheung is known for reporting the story beyond the story. While the main press talks about soup kitchens and sandwiches and coffee for people in the Downtown Eastside, Christopher explores where folks on a limited income eat. And with the prices for restaurant food in Vancouver, how do they do it? Neighbourhoods are not just about housing and working, they are complex systems that include the interdependence of sociability, livability, and supportive commercial places. That comes through in the downtown eastside, in examining where residents can eat close to where they live, as housing arrangements are often not conducive to at home cooking.
In his cogent article about dining in the east side, Christopher Cheung observes: “Accessible restaurants have many important roles to play here beyond serving affordable food.In the Downtown Eastside, most of the affordable housing is single-room occupancy units in old hotels. The units are typically 100 square feet with a shared washroom in the hall. Eating for one, let alone hosting a friend, is a challenge for many. Some residents of these old buildings use hot plates to cook because they don’t have full kitchens. Some property managers, however, don’t allow hot plates at all. So having good places to eat out is all the more important.”
Places like Prime Time Chicken on Main and the Ovaltine Cafe on Hastings provide options, and Christopher Cheung notes “Because the Downtown Eastside rubs shoulder-to-shoulder with Chinatown, home to many seniors in subsidized apartments, low-income locals and immigrants frequent the same affordable eateries.”
The S2 Cafe House, the Chinatown Plaza food court,local Chinese restaurants and bakeries provide variety and choice. The Carnegie Community Centre serves up 350 meals a day from their healthy food menu. Standards like McDonalds and Tim Hortons provide a place to access wi-fi and some are open 24 hours, providing an ambient atmosphere for local residents. Using these places and not being asked to leave upon completing a meal also provides a sense of belonging to locals. “People feel like a paying customer and feel like a valued member of society,” said Jeremy Hunka, a spokesperson from the Downtown Eastside’s Union Gospel Mission.”
He also noted that with food courts and fast food restaurants “For low-income people, healthy food is really rare.It’s much easier to buy processed, cheap, non-nutritional food to fill that stomach, but that doesn’t go very far when you are walking around all day or looking for work or have health issues or trying to raise a family.”
Images; Glacier Media
