In an effort to highlight their unity and solidarity with European values, several of the embassies from EU member states, along with the EU delegation, volunteered for Food for Thought on Europe Day.
“Europe Day is on May 9,” Brice de Schietere said in a statement about the event. “It had to be different this year in the current context and we wanted to highlight unity and solidarity as strong European values. We discussed this with the ambassadors of the EU member states and agreed that we should express this solidarity through local engagement in support of communities in need.”
Food for Thought, which receives support from the Community Foundation of Ottawa, is a not-for-profit corporation that feeds people, encourages community spirit and ensures people are connected by internet and phone.
Part of the organization’s mission is to run a coffee shop out of a community centre on Caldwell Avenue in the Carlington neighbourhood of Ottawa.
“We have coffee and food — waffles and smoothies,” said Sylvain de Margerie, managing director of Food for Thought. “It’s quite a hard neighbourhood and all social services carry banking hours. They all close at 4 p.m., but most of the [Food for Thought’s clients] go to school or work. Also, the evenings are crime-recruitment time for youths. That’s when we open.”
When COVID hit, the coffee shop, which also offers phone and internet services to clients, had to close. Instead of just abandoning its mission, Food for Thought pivoted. For the first two months of the pandemic, it moved its volunteers into Joe Thottungal’s Thali restaurant on O’Connor Street in downtown Ottawa. Thottungal, an award-winning chef who is well known for his big heart, opened up his restaurant to the group, ran the kitchen and, with the help of community and chef volunteers, cooked 1,500 meals a day. The chef from the German Embassy took part, as did several diplomats from EU missions.
The new meal focus of Food for Thought is a positive result of COVID and one that will continue even after the café can reopen.
“There’s a huge number of people in Ottawa who are falling through the cracks,” de Margerie says, adding that he sees them regularly at the café. “A food hamper doesn’t help because they don’t have pots and pans. They can’t cook because they don’t have a kitchen.”
Diplomats from EU countries felt it was an ideal choice for them to mark Europe Day in unusual times.
“It is important to stress the fantastic job done by the volunteers in the field,” de Schietere writes. “We are very proud of our partners and the many generous people who all deserve credit.”
To mark Nelson Mandela Day in July, diplomats from the South African High Commission also volunteered their time at Thali with Food for Thought.
