St Saviour’s, Nelson
At Thanksgiving in October of 2024, a small group of volunteers started serving a Sunday Community Meal to anyone in need in the Nelson area at St. Saviour’s Anglican Church in Nelson. By December 31 2025, we completed our first full year offering a Sunday meal to anyone in need and it has been eventful! We have served a total of 2,129 meals and are now providing delicious, wholesome, and hearty meals to about 70 people every Sunday.
The Sunday Community Meal originated from the realization that there were no meal options for people in need in the region on weekends. It also became apparent that unhoused folks often cannot use the services of a foodbank. Foodbanks generally provide ingredients for meals and this creates a serious challenge for people who don’t have a kitchen.
Funding for the Sunday Community Meal has come from a variety of sources including the Anglican Foundation of Canada, the Community Prosperity Fund administered by the Osprey Foundation, the Christian Science Society, the Nelson Rotary Club Circle Foundation, and the Canadian Legion, as well as individual donations.
The project is completely volunteer run. We have a team on Saturday afternoons for meal preparation and a team for Sundays for meal serving and cleanup. Many members of the congregation continue to volunteer regularly but we also have lots of help from the wider community. Among others, the Rotary Interact club members (high school student volunteers) have been an ongoing and very helpful key in meeting our volunteer needs. To date, over 70 people have volunteered to help on more than one occasion.
This past Saturday, we held a volunteer appreciation event that was attended by 24 of our volunteers. It was a great opportunity to reflect on what has been done so far, why we keep doing it, and how we can improve. We recognize that the problems of food insecurity are not going away in the foreseeable future. Jude Stralak, one of our lead cooks, put it this way: “We are providing a non-judgmental community space for people. We offer dignity, warmth, and good food.” Skyla Jones, one of our Rotary Interact volunteers said “It is a good place to be. There is such good energy and people are so grateful. This is what community is all about!’
Our volunteer coordinator, Annette Smith, said that this project is “being part of something bigger than I am. It’s good to serve others.” And volunteer Margaret Whalley put it this way: “What kind of community do I want to live in – one of respect, dignity, and acceptance, or one that is self-serving and judgmental? Here, we lift each other up.”
The Sunday Community Meal complements the Food Pantry Foodbank that has operated at St. Saviour’s every Friday for more than 25 years. St. Saviour’s also works with ANKORS to provide beds for the Winter Emergency Bed Program.
If you are interested in getting involved as a volunteer or to donate, contact St. Saviour’s Anglican Church at [email protected] or call 250-352-5711.
