Edmonton Journal

‘Everyone coming through the line has been happy’

Roast beef dinner at Boyle Street Plaza draws hundreds of inner-city residents

- CLARE CLANCY cclancy@postmedia.com

Hundreds of people eagerly lined up Sunday outside Boyle Street Plaza for an annual roast beef dinner that aims to bring together vulnerable Edmontonia­ns.

“We try to make it as first class as we can for people who don’t normally get a meal in a setting like this, to show the community does care,” said Garth Von Hagen, former chair with the Inner City Agencies Foundation.

For 57-year-old Dale Pruden, the free meal offers respite from a difficult winter.

“It’s been so cold,” he said, adding that he has been homeless for four years. “(This meal) means no more hunger.”

A live band cycled between classic tunes, from Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues to Bob Marley’s anthem One Love.

“This is very cool,” Pruden said. Edmonton Centre NDP MLA David Shepherd is helping to stack plates with classic fixings — mashed potatoes, carrots and gravy. He’s one of several celebrity servers, along with other politician­s and Edmonton Eskimos.

Shepherd said volunteeri­ng at the dinner, which draws 1,200 people, gives him a sense of the challenges within the homeless community.

“As a representa­tive for Edmonton’s downtown ... I represent everyone, so that’s folks that live in high-end highrises and folks that live on the streets,” he said. “It’s been a great atmosphere so far ... Everyone coming through the line has been happy, cheerful.”

Gail and Ernie Jeschke, both 66, celebrated a rare day out.

“I couldn’t eat this time last year,” Ernie Jeschke said, adding he would choke and vomit. “I would have to drink out of a straw.”

In October 2015, he was paralyzed due to a spinal abscess, but has since regained his ability to walk. “It takes a lot of willpower.”

“It’s the first time I’ve had my husband out since he’s been sick ... He’s a miracle,” Gail Jeschke said, crediting staff at Glenrose Rehabilita­tion Hospital with his transforma­tion.

“He walked in here.”

They have been married 17 years, she said.

“I wish I could do a roast beef the way these guys do,” she said.

Von Hagen said there continues to be misconcept­ions about the homeless community.

“During the boom times, people would say, ‘If you can’t get a job in Alberta, you must be lazy,’ but there’s so much more to that,” he said. “There are addictions issues, mental health issues and a lot of people come from a past that may be troubled ... trauma, violence, poverty.”

He said many people are closer to being homeless than they know. “Or there’s someone in our own family, or in our community on the verge ... It is complicate­d.”

The annual dinner was part of the Inner City Awareness Week, which ends March 25.

 ?? ED KAISER ?? Edmonton Eskimos players, from front to back, Nate Coehoorn, David Beard and Justin Sorensen, serve meals on Sunday at the Boyle Street Plaza.
ED KAISER Edmonton Eskimos players, from front to back, Nate Coehoorn, David Beard and Justin Sorensen, serve meals on Sunday at the Boyle Street Plaza.

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