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t j i r f e i i i t i i i economist sunsuntribune community saturday march u 2006 staff photosjoerd witteveen york region newspaper group reporter serena willoughby helps prepare meals with shirin sumar at the homeless shelter at the jaffari islam ic centre wednesday evening to success at centre is teamwork organizers say from page 1 the guests consist of a core group of about 50 people who use the service and sleep on church basement floors and hallways all through the winter but spend a couple hours at jaf fari and you start to feel less like a guest and more like one of thefami- ms sumar is the greeter who shows volunteers to the kitchen where the ladies were busy prepar ing dinner with ms sumars mother who was like a general leading the food preparations theyve been here all after noon ms sumar says l the ladies chat amiably as they prepare a dinner of salad fried chicken rice french fries and fruit and custard for dessert they even made a sugarfree pie for two diabetic guests the elder ms sumar soon put this reporter to work in the kitchen as they tried to stretch the resources to facilitate the extra people there are so many this week she says several of the volunteers are young women mostly university students who started out volunteer ing during high school as part of their mandatory community service but a few years later even with the demands of postsecondary education hanging over their heads these girls keep coming back week after week the women in the kitchen are like a family they could easily have been preparing food for their own chil dren considering the care they took in preparing the meal the guests are served by volun teers who bring the trays of food out one by one after dinner the younger girls take care of the store an area sup plying clothes and supplies to the guests one by one they all file through and pick out something from the store someone has donated a box of new sunglasses and the guests sort through them trying on the different styles in honour of international womens day someone has sent roses for all the women in the pro gram and the girls pass those out the out of the cold program supplies security to the host facili ties but as security guard nancie tells me he doesnt think of himself as security more like one of the guys when theres a problem or a dis pute among the guests nancie might take the guest aside have a cigarette with them and try to figure out how to solve it its more like conflict resolu tion nancie says with a laugh nancie knows each of the guests and knows their history while a lot of people might by intimidated by the guests he knows it works both ways he got the nickname nancie because as a tall toughlooking security guard many of the guests found him mtimidating he came up with his feminine sounding name as an icebreaker since nancie looks nothing like a nancie hes been taking care of security for the program for six years and he has seen a lot a lot of organizations keep these guys homeless at arms length they serve them food but theyre too afraid to interact with them but these guys jaffari islamic centre here theyre really cool nancie points to one of the vol unteers as he serves popcorn to the guests who are now watching a movie how often would you see a little old man serving popcorn to the homeless but when they come here theyre like family he said what nancie knows is that most of the guests are decent kind people and they all have a story to tell volunteering isnt just about chopping vegetables or washing dishes in the kitchen its about showing the guests some hospitality by visiting with them and listening take anna for instance shes a regular member of the core group but have a chat with anna and youll find a woman with an education in psychology a web site and welldeveloped theories on everything from immigration to social work anna has a futuristic concept of the social welfare system that would put george orwell to shame while anna may ruffle a few feathers from time to time shes basically just disillusioned by a sys tem she feels has failed her 1 while shes appreciative of pro grams like out of the cold shes frus trated by a system that hasnt allowed her to work in her field talk to whitehawk hes been around richmond hill for years and can recount the history of the area from its very beginnings hes verywell read uptodate on his current events and chatted about everythingfrom conrad black to media to tattoos while the guests have no prob lem chatting theyre very firm on not giving out their names nancie explains that many- of them have family and theyd be ashamed if anyone found out theyre now sleeping on a mosque basement floor he explains that part of his job is making sure the guests enjoy a level of anonymity that is absolutely nec essary for making them feel at ease in the program when it was time to leave some of the guests are getting ready to go to sleep on cushions in the hallways and mattresses on the linoleum floors jaffari islamic centre is an old building plagued by plumbing problems however despite its rudimentary condition the volunteers are eager to share it with their guests even though this reporter felt all she did was sit around talking to people organizers were grateful for the help ms sumar says that next week members of parliament bryon wilfert and susan kadis will be visit ing the program sure hope theyre ready to listen for more information about the out of the cold program or to volunteer contact rehana sumar program coordinator at 416 948 6682 oremail her at rsumarrogerscom portrmts custom framing pjpffr maternity newborn children 0 family seniors corporate f v it