Frybread giveaway in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside continues for 9th year

​The Indigenous Action Movement is heading back to Vancouver's Downtown Eastside Saturday night for its annual frybread giveaway.

The group has been handing out food and other donations to vulnerable people every New Year's Eve since 2008.

Kat Norris said the idea for the event came to her while she was getting ready to ring in the New Year.

"It hit me about the people down there," she said. "Thinking of them cold and out with no food, and here I am getting ready to go out and have fun ... all of a sudden I didn't feel like dancing. I knew what I wanted to do."

Norris said she immediately picked up the phone and the event was born. 

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Dozens of volunteers take trolleys filled with frybread, jackets, toques, gloves and toiletry items through the streets to give to the homeless. This year, Norris said they're making enough food for hundreds.

Shar Cosgrave has been participating in the event for since 2013.

"I just feel like it's a good time to give back," she said. "Oftentimes people give so much before and at Christmas time, and then you just see more of the despair … it's not a holiday when people are living in poverty.

"People usually are pretty thankful, they really like [the frybread]," she added. "For some people, it's what they grew up with."

Cosgrave, who used to work in the Downtown Eastside, said volunteers also hand out Christmas cards for a little "good cheer."

"I remember some of the people … It just really makes me feel good to go out on New Year's Eve and help feed the people and connect with people and hear their stories."

Advocates founded the Indigenous Act Movement after the death of Frank Paul in 1998

According to a public inquiry, the indigenous man died of hypothermia after the police left him in a downtown alley in the middle of the night.