West Broadway soup kitchen seeks help after windows shattered twice in same week

Staff at West Broadway Community Ministry are asking for help after the windows at the ministry's drop-in safe space and soup kitchen were smashed twice in a week. 

"I'm worried. I'm wondering about the anger, too, and what that's about," said Lynda Trono, the community minister with West Broadway Community Ministry, which operates out of the Crossways in Common building at the corner of Broadway and Furby Street.

"It's a little bit distressing and concerning for the future."

Working out of Crossways, the ministry offers a variety of services to the homeless community, including lunches four times a week, emergency food supplies, laundry and shower facilities, internet access and drop-in programs. At least 200 people access services each day, Trono said.

"This is the second day [this week] that I came to work and one of the windows had been smashed," she said.

On Monday, she arrived to see a massive double-paned window completely shattered. Staff replaced that window, as the building was quickly getting cold, for $500. 

When Trono got to work Wednesday, she saw it had happened again. This time, the outer panes of two windows were smashed and an outside wall was covered in graffiti. 

"You're wondering, 'Is somebody mad at us?" You just think, yeah, that's happening in our city right now because of all the all the difficulties that people are facing."

The ministry, which is one of three partner agencies of the registered charity 1JustCity, already operates on a shoestring budget and relies on donated food. It'll have to use money from what it has allocated for healthy food, like nuts and fresh vegetables for soup, to repair the windows, said 1JustCity executive director Tessa Blaikie Whitecloud.

The cost of their insurance deductible is about the same as the repairs, she said, which will cost about $500 per window.

The community ministry's lunch group gathers for conversation and the lighting of candles before meals. Before beef and lentil soup on Wednesday, they addressed the vandalism as a group.

"We lit a candle for our own community and for the people that [are] the perpetrators of this," said Trono. "They need help."

But she wants the vandalism to stop, and doesn't want to close down the lunch program because of being targeted. She hopes the public awareness sparks action, great and small.

"As a city we need to come together and do something about it. It's more than just throwing people in jail. We've gotta start caring for people," she said.

"Maybe if somebody gets smiled at, they don't put a fist through a window."

Donations to help with the window repairs can be made at 1justcity.ca/donate, with the comment "windows."