Using food to make lasting connections
Community Partner: Directions Youth Services
“[When] you’re coming to an approachable resource center - you deserve a nice meal made safely with high-quality ingredients.”- Sylvia, Food Program manager at Directions Youth Services
Filling in the gaps
Directions Youth Services, a division of Family Services of Greater Vancouver, is a charity located in downtown Vancouver offering accessible services to youth in crisis situations such as homelessness, abusive relationships, neglect, or mental health struggles. Directions helps more than 1,000 youth per year to find safety from the streets offering medical care, long-term housing support, temporary shelter and hot meals.
And 80% of the food they offer is provided by food rescuers like Food Stash!
Directions serves dinner to around 30 youth each night, and this doesn’t include the nutritious snacks that their staff and volunteers offer whenever they’re hungry: things like yogurt, bananas or a PB&J sandwich.
In March 2022 the Food Stash team spent a couple of evenings volunteering with Sylvia, Directions’ Food Programs supervisor, helping cook dinner with rescued food. Each night, the menu looked different based on the food donations they had received, but one thing remained the same - each meal was cooked with love.
The Power of Choice
During the pandemic, Directions started a new Pantry Program, which Sylvia described as a “grocery store on wheels.” It’s stocked with food like noodles, vegetables, and fruit, and was created to give youth a chance to make their own choices.
Youth are given a certain number of points each day to ‘buy’ food from the pantry - and the healthier items cost less. Often, the pantry shelves are stocked with rescued food donated from Food Stash.
This program aims to promote healthy choices, but ultimately it’s up to the youth to make their own decisions - giving them a sense of empowerment in a world that may feel out of control.
Directions Youth Services prides itself on being low-barrier and inclusive, and the pantry is no different. No matter what their background or current situation, folks can access ready-to-eat items, dry goods like pasta for youth with access to a kitchen, or fruit that can be packed and eaten later.
Making a Difference
1 in 6 youth in BC are experiencing some level of food insecurity, so the team at Directions Youth Services deeply understands that “food is too valuable to waste.”
For Food Stash’s 35 community partners including Directions Youth Services, food donations can be crucial, especially when funding is limited. Like many of us, Directions has been struggling with the rising cost of food. Receiving donations of items like milk or yogurt frees up the budget for them to put towards other expenses.
Food Connects Us
Not only does Directions aim to address hunger among youth in Vancouver, it also facilitates relationship building. Sylvia describes food as a “catalyst for conversations'' allowing staff to engage in deeper conversations about what type of support their clients may need, whether job training or permanent housing.
“Food is such a catalyst for conversation, and the food that Food Stash supplies allows us to start building these trusted relationships.” - SYLVIA