Empty Bellies

What is the current food crisis, why is it happening, what does the future hold and what can we do?

Come join us to learn about and discuss this important issue.

Above is a poster made by David Henderson.

Empty Bellies
A Look at the Current Global Food Crisis
Saturday, June 7, 2008 @ 7:30pm
First Baptist Church, 5th & Gillett

Prince George Homeless Count 2008

Sarah passed on the following information about the Prince George Homeless Count 2008 (If you're interested in attending with someone from SATS, email us at: smokestacksandthesunrise@yahoo.ca):

"On May 25th and 26th CPAH (Community Partners Addressing Homelessness) will be conducting the first ever homeless count in Prince George. This will help us more fully comprehend the scope of homelessness and will enable us to capture a snapshot of the size and composition of our visible homeless population.

This count will take place within a 24 hour period, from 6:00pm Sunday- 6:00pm Monday. We are currently seeking volunteers to help out within this time frame.

There are many ways someone would be able to volunteer with this project:
- Outdoor surveying – to work in pairs walking set areas of the downtown and a few park or camping areas to survey people who may not have accessed a Shelter. Outdoor surveys will be done during the daylight hours early Monday morning for no more than 3 hours.
- Serve special meals - to help with a breakfast on the Monday at the Native Friendship Centre.
- Surveying at agencies – some agencies may require assistance with conducting surveys.
- At the count headquarters AWAC (Association Advocating for Women and Children) - to help with distribution of supplies for the volunteers, have access to a vehicle in order to do checks on the street volunteers, and to answer phones for when street volunteers call in.

If you are interested in helping us out please attend the information and orientation night at
the College of New Caledonia on May 20th (Tuesday) from 6:30pm-9:30pm in Room 1-308A/B.

It is important to attend this night. However, if you are unable - we will be reviewing the
information before the count on Sunday the 25th at AWAC.

Hope to see you Tuesday!
For more information you can contact:
Shirley Rushton at 562-6262 local 226 or Kerry Pateman at kpateman@shaw.ca"

Claw Hands

One particularly un-springish Sunday, five brave souls embarked on a mission of restoration in their community. Intrigued? Keep reading.

The city of Prince George staged a spring city clean up where the municipal powers provided motivated citizens with bags and gloves to clean up their neighbourhoods, streets, parks and any other area one might find litter. Laziness on the city's part, you might assume, but no, this was an event meant to allow its residents to participate and contribute to the beautification and amelioration of their surroundings. So, five of us Stackers ventured out on a sunny yet frigid day to clean up a park near Carney Hill Elementary.

If you look hard enough, you can see Ben in the far off distance working around the players' bench, learning the difference between a syringe and a vial.

Travis and Amy scouring the ground...

London Drugs' high-security secret cart storage. Not very secure looking, you might be thinking. Wrong-o. That is ice they are sitting in, and they weren't going anywhere until summer.

The bounty of my own treasure hunt. Part of an exhaust system and a potential murder weapon. It was so great of a find it was too good to be picked up for garbage apparently.

It was a great morning, though I think it took about 3 days for feeling to come back into my fingers. However I think we can all agree the result was well worth having claw hands for a few days.

Thanks for the Earth Day contribution Sarah.

The BETTER Part

There can be a lot of cynicism when you talk about a campaign like Make Poverty History...

"It's all hype" someone will say.
"A white band isn't going to save the world".

Well, we now have something to point to...
A step in a hopeful direction.

The Canadian government has just passed into law the BETTER AID bill that the Make Poverty History campaign has been pushing for.

This is a time to CELEBRATE; and with that, a time to THANK those in government who responded to the public pressure.

While it is crucial that we tell our leaders when things need to change, it is also very important to tell our leaders when they've done something right.

Please follow this link if you would like to thank Canada's leaders for listening to us on this key issue:
http://action.makepovertyhistory.ca/ea-campaign/clientcampaign.do?ea.client.id=28&ea.campaign.id=633

Cheers,

Ben

St. Vinnies Breakfast

On the 2nd Sunday of every month, we join Kathy at St. Vinnie's to serve breakfast.
This a great way to serve in the community, and it's easy to do...
Join us, we always have a great time.

PS Please let us know if you plan to attend. Thx.

St. Vinnies Breakfast
SUNday morning.
Date: Sunday, May 11, 2008
Time: 8:00am - 11:00am
Location: St. Vincent de Paul Drop-In Centre
Street: 1220 2nd Avenue