Rainbow Kitchen offers hundreds of meals to its extended ‘family’
Colleen Gurney and Fred Bourque stood out from the the crowd that has gathered for Christmas lunch at the Rainbow Kitchen in Esquimalt.
Bourque’s striped hat and “Head Elf” T-shirt complemented Gurney’s bright-red Santa costume on Monday. While some faces in the crowd looked tired or defeated, Bourque and Gurney looked downright jolly.
“It’s so awesome here, we’re all a big happy family. Rainbow Kitchen, rainbow family,” Gurney said.
The couple is among the regulars of the community kitchen, which serves hot meals to anyone who needs them — between 125 and 140 people on an average day. On Christmas Day, that number doubles to more than 300.
But to them, the kitchen is about more than a free meal.
“We got married here in the kitchen, with everybody,” Gurney said. And they aren’t alone. “We got married here and then a month later the guy who was playing the harmonica married his wife. They met here,” Bourque said, pointing to a man in his 80s, playing Silent Night before the turkey was served.
The other man is volunteer Tony Gvora. Several years ago, Gvora took a break from volunteering at the kitchen, when he found himself becoming cynical about it. Then his wife became ill and died.
“I had this nagging, nagging, insistent nagging to go back to the Rainbow Kitchen. I thought, I can’t go back, because my heart was not in it,” Gvora said.
He went back anyway, three years ago. There, he reconnected with Beth — another volunteer — and also saw the importance of the kitchen in a new light.
“He realized he was like a lot of the people here. They’re just lonely and want to have someone to eat with and have some companionship,” Beth said.
Gvora is emotional when he speaks about the experience. He married Beth two years ago (although the wedding wasn’t at the kitchen).
“This is more than just an eating place. When you have no family, this is a connection with humanity. This is connection with a family and I found my new family here,” he said.
The Rainbow Kitchen serves meals five days a week for 50 weeks of the year.
The people who come to the kitchen include street youth, seniors on low incomes, single parents and children, the unemployed and underemployed, plus individuals on social assistance and disability pensions.
Greg Tupman said he has been coming for eight or nine years and Christmas lunch is a tradition.
“Sometimes I don’t have the funds for groceries, so that’s why I come here. I’m living paycheque to paycheque. It’s kind of hard to make ends meet, even though I’m a single person, no dependents, not married,” Tupman said.
Tex Finlay said the place has a nice atmosphere and good meals.
“I’m on disability right now, so I can’t work. I just lost five toes two weeks ago, so I’m just plugging along.”
The volunteers come from all parts of the community. Board members Judy Estrin, who is Jewish, and Farhan Kanji, who is Ismaili Muslim, volunteered to help run the Christmas meal.
“We are both non-Christians,” Estrin said. “But this way, our other board members get to be with their families and we’re free to be here.”
Kanji said Christmas might not be an official holiday in the Ismaili tradition, but members of her mosque’s religious school helped put together gift bags for those who visit the kitchen, including tubes of toothpaste and shampoo, plus donations such as tuques.
“A lot of our community members are in multi-faith families. My brother and brother-in-law are both married outside the community, so we celebrate [Christmas] with the families,” he said.
Rocket Ogden, who was in charge of cooking 20 turkeys for the holiday meal, is a retired navy engineer.
She led a team of volunteers Saturday cooking the birds in batches, over the course of 10 to 11 hours.
“This has become a tradition for our family. My son Spencer is here, my brothers are going to come for lunch. So we make this part of our family routine,” Ogden said.