Our Mission
The mission of Potluck Café Society is to transform lives by providing employment and hands-on training to members of the community who face barriers to traditional employment, and providing healthy, nutritious food for people living in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
Respect
Dignity
Supportive Employment
Community
Focus
Collaboration
Acceptance
Our Values
Community
Programs
Our commitment to working closely with our community, with both the people living in the DTES and other organizations in the DTES, is why we do what we do.
A great example would be our partnering with H.A.VE Culinary Training Society, to prepare meals for SRO residents.
These programs don't define us, but define our values, our goals, our mission.
We are proud to say we a part of the Buy Social Program
Buy Social Canada advances and promotes social procurement by
bringing socially driven purchasers and social enterprise suppliers
together, building business relationships that generate social benefits
to communities across the country.
Community Meals
Thanks to funding from both the City of Vancouver and a philanthropic donation from a local Vancouver foundation, Potluck is able to provide 1825 meals every week to hard-to-house residents in the DTES, including those in SRO's and the unhoused.
These meals are prepared fresh and packaged by our kitchen staff. Every weekday, community peers hand out 100 hot meals (and an extra 85 on Tuesday's)!
City of Vancouver employees pick up over 1200 meals every Friday morning to then deliver to 7 different locations.
"Beat the Heat" Lemonade Stand
To help the residents of the DTES, we thought what better way to keep people cool than by providing chilled lemonade. We were also successful in providing community members with some low-barrier employment too.
A "pay-what-you-can' program, provided community members the chance to donate to our social programs should they so choose, all while drinking some yummy lemonade.
Greatly appreciated by the community, this program ran from July 2022, to September 2022, provided over 3000 cups of lemonade and over 340 hours of employment.
Fruit Stand
In our previous location, Potluck had a weekly fruit market in summer for the community, giving them low cost access to fresh seasonal fruits.
Since it was so well received, we thought we'd bring it back!
Over the course of 8 weeks, we provided over 300 bags of fresh fruit, at community pricing - think, $1 bags of blueberries.
Holiday Meal Program
Potluck has joined forces with the YWCA Vancouver Single Mothers Program to provide a Holiday Meal Program for the singles mothers they support. This meal program will see us providing family-style holiday meals over Thanksgiving, Christmas and Spring.
What divine timing too, because they have recently welcomed and begun supporting just shy of 80 Ukrainian refugee mothers along with their children.
Keep your eyes on our socials around the aforementioned holidays to see pics and blog posts!
Homelessness Action Week
For many years, Potluck donated hot and fresh meals to residents during Homelessness Action Week.
This year, we partnered with DTES Neighbourhood House, and provided 300 meals of Beef Stroganoff Pasta to residents of the neighbourhood and others who visit this organization.
The 32nd Annual Women's Memorial March
For a number of years, Potluck has participated in Vancouver's Annual Women's Memorial March. This year, for the 32nd annual march, Potluck supported the march by providing 300 hot meals of Beef Stroganoff Pasta and Mashed Potatoes, and 100 pieces of homemade Bannock.
We hope you also had the chance to participate.
Hot Chocolate Stand
To keep on par with our mission of the lemonade stand, we're hosting a hot chocoolate stand at our location Tuesday - Friday, end date undetermined (really, as long as it needs to run!)
This program will be again pay-what-you-can / by donation. ..best of all, it offers up to 24 hours per week of income generation.
And more...
We aren't done there. Potluck has several food and employment programs being developed and implemented in the coming months. Keep an eye on our socials, or join our mailing list, to get up-to-date and first sneak peaks at new programs
Community Partners
Over the past two decades, we feel privileged to have made a contribution to the DTES Community that has had an impact on its members.
However, we fully recognize none of this would have been possible without the support and partnership of other organizations, not-for-profits, and our well wishers who have generously contributed in so many ways to Potluck's efforts.
This section is dedicated to acknowledge and thank all of you, who have helped us along our journey.
