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Waterloo Wayside is an after-school program for youth grades 5-8! We provide snacks, open gym, yoga, free Wi-Fi and homework help under adult supervision.
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Humans of Wayside @ The Bridgeport Café – Jack: We've changed the food so that it’s healthier. We go to the food bank every Wednesday. Ahmed and I go together. The last few weeks we’re up to two car loads of food. It’s all fresh and it’s all good. Every day there is fresh salad. Arthur and I cook up a big pot of soup every Tuesday. That lasts for Wednesday. So we basically just cook up a bunch a food. We now need more volunteers. It used to be you could run the entire café with six people no problem. Two to open and prepare the food, two to host and mix with the people, and two to close. But now it takes at least six people to prepare all the individual helpings of the things we bake. We make all kinds of individually baked things it just takes a lot of help. The other thing we’ve done differently, especially for those who have kids at home, we send food home. So they have something for their kids. It’s not my job to judge them, Jesus said the poor are always with you even at the end of this age. They are here and they need to be fed. That’s the command. I live by the command. (2/2) http://www.thefoodbank.ca/en/index.asp
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Humans of Wayside @ The Bridgeport Café – Jack: I come here to cook because there are hungry people on the streets who need to be fed. I became aware of this because I went to church. There was an ad in our weekly bullitien that they were asking for help at the Bridgeport Café. I thought the café was out in Bridgeport somewhere and that it might actually be a café. (1/2) Check out more blog posts here: http://waterloowayside.org/
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Humans of Wayside – Edith: Coming down and getting clothes for them and being able to find that right size of jeans, could be women’s or men’s that they’re looking for, or they might need a whole outfit which is fantastic if you can outfit somebody, if you can find the sizes of stuff. I really enjoy that. I really enjoy coming here, part of it is when I was a very poor member in my family, I feel like I am giving someone a step up, just by being here and helping them out just like my family were helped out in years past. I feel like that’s important for me I feel like I’m making a difference. (2/2) http://waterloowayside.org/
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Humans of Wayside at The Bridgeport Cafe – Edith: I started at our church, at Emmanuel (Wayside) after being nine years with the out of the cold. I was interested in doing something for our community because we had been working for St. John’s Lutheran for Out of the Cold. I just felt I wanted to do something for Wayside Center and Shareware seemed to be a fairly easy transition. I didn’t have any fear of our clients because I had worked with them. I felt fairly comfortable I’ve never had any cause to feel afraid. I really, really appreciate it when they come up and talk to me and tell me a little about their day or their week or their story, that’s always been an important part of it for me. The confidence that they have in me to be able to do that is really important. For them to be heard and for me to be there for them. That’s been an important part of Sharewear for a long time. (1/2) To see more stories from "our humans" please click the link, and go to our blog. http://waterloowayside.org/
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Humans of Wayside @ The Bridgeport Cafe – Patti: At first we were going to different locations doing music and art in many different settings, but we had the best response from here and it felt right so now we come every Tuesday. It’s all about the community. Being in community, trying to get people involved. It is odd for me that I found a place here where I should be here doing this. I am Jewish. To be in a church setting of any kind is not natural, or sometimes not even comfortable. It’s not a big part of it, but it’s something I am aware of. Sometimes people will say something to me and I’m not sure how to respond. People will say to me “Blessings to you”, or “Jesus be with you” and I’m just like “back at you”. Bruce is wonderful the pastor here, I have to give him credit for being a man of the people, he takes time to connect with volunteers and regulars to the café in a very natural and supportive way. (2/2) *While the Bridgeport Café is run in a church building, the intent of the café is to be non-denominational and secular. Our many volunteers, clients and donors come from all different parts of society, from the very religious (of all faiths) to athiests, and all points in between. All are welcome here. While we specifically do not wish to be a religious entity running programming, our presence in a religious building does allow our clients the unique opportunity to discuss their own faith journeys and gives some of them a sense of a safe place to express faith. Many of our clients feel alienated from faith communities in general, and while it was not our goal when we started, it is wonderful to see people of sincere faith, or sincere atheism to be able to gather together, talk together and freely express the sentiments unique to all of them. See more of our blogs here: http://waterloowayside.org/
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Humans of Wayside @ The Bridgeport Cafe – Patti: For me, I’ve been an artist and doing art classes and art instruction forever. That’s what I studied in school and that’s what I really like. Even though I taught in many different places, with kids and adults and seniors, camps and all different things I never worked in a setting like this at all. So I found my niche. I decided I wanted a volunteer position a couple of years ago and I looked at different things. They were sort of more formal and didn’t work for me. This happened through a connection here, Linda who is a member, we joined a book club together. She knew I was looking for a volunteer opportunity. It’s about a year that I’ve been coming here. Then, in the fall of last year I got connected with another group that was a funding thing of music and art called Music, Art, Jamming and Community and that’s how I connected with Lisa. I got Lisa the gig, she’s the music lady. It kind of really just blossomed. (1/2) http://waterloowayside.org/
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Humans of Wayside @ the Bridgeport Cafe – Martin: "About a year ago, we started this campaign to get free bus passes for people on low income. I was part of a delegation from AAP that addressed regional council. Anyway after I gave my talk at regional council there was a reporter from the Waterloo Chronicle came up and she was very interested in what I had said to council. She wanted to interview. It took about two months for her to find the time but eventually she came to my apartment and she did an interview and about three weeks later an article appeared in the chronicle. I’m always very wary when I’m being interviewed by a reporter because depending on what they actually want the article to be about they can edit your words, they can make you sound like you’re saying something the exact opposite to what you are. I try to talk in a way that they cannot twist your words." (2/2) http://www.therecord.com/news-story/6260504-delayed-report-on-free-bus-passes-for-low-income-residents-irks-advocates/ http://waterloowayside.org/
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Humans of Wayside @ the Bridgeport Cafe – Martin: "Alliance against poverty, AAP. I was one of the two people who started this group about five years ago the other person is Oz Cole Arnell, he had just retired from Laurier he was a professor at the Lutheran seminary. We actually met the year before during the federal election campaign. Oz ran for the New Democrats and I ran for the Communist party. So we met at some all candidates meetings and we found out that we had a lot in common. We kept in touch after the election then about a year, year and a half later we decided to form an anti-poverty activist group, which we did. It’s going now, I guess there are about fifteen members. Everyone in the group is an activist of some sort. Approximately half the group are at least middle income. The other half of the people are people like myself, the term we use is living on the edge. People below the poverty line." (1/2) Click our link to see more of our blogs. http://waterloowayside.org/
Homeless in Waterloo: Sharing stories of an overlooked population
A great community building project in the Waterloo Region.
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Humans of Wayside @ the Bridgeport Cafe - Arthur: "I get the most enjoyment out of working at the Bridgeport Café. From the honesty of the people we deal with, the appreciation they give to us. Especially when I can make my turkey bone soup. It’s a soup made up from leftover turkeys. Just the bones and the meat left on them. Then we add the kitchen sink to it. It is a very nice soup. I have a few little tricks. It’s one thing I really do enjoy. I am making soup almost every day and what we have is whatever we make ourselves or we get from the Foodbank of Waterloo Region. They always have some food leftover, and we put that into a soup. You will be surprised how much that is enjoyed. That gives me a lot of satisfaction." (2/2) http://waterloowayside.org/
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Humans of Wayside @ the Bridgeport Cafe - Arthur: "My name is Arthur Hills. I have been volunteering for quite a while in various ways. One of the things I have realized is that I have always liked to help people. I did that in my work because I was a computer support person for Macintosh computers. I was always helping people solve problems especially with Microsoft. Since I’ve retired, I’ve done volunteer work in completely different areas than which I did when I was working. I’ve been involved in the local church, the regional church called Waterloo Presbytery and the National at Hamilton Conference and General Council." (1/2) Click here to see more Waterloo Wayside stories: http://waterloowayside.org/
The Working Centre founders named to Order of Canada
When the Bridgeport Cafe opened, the Working Centre ran it. Wayside has taken over the day to day operations of the Cafe, but we are so grateful to this wonderful organization that helped us get started and supported us through the process of establishing the cafe.
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