L’Arche fastens members to eatery with the buttons
Helping people in Hamilton is what both L’Arche and the 541 Eatery and Exchange on Barton are all about
I spent a lovely and delicious interlude recently with Janice, Krystal and Mandy, over brownies, coffee and tea, where they work, and Paige bought the buttons. Thank you, Paige.
Where they work, these days, is 541 Eatery & Exchange. You know? The place with the buttons. On Barton Street East, just east of Sanford Avenue North and Woodlands Park.
You don’t just buy your meal there. You buy your meal and some extra buttons that you then put in a jar on the counter, and when someone comes along who can’t pay for their meal, or not all of it, they can take buttons out of the jar and pay with those.
Seems it’s always busy there, and no wonder. The food’s great, the idea is both uplifting and liberating, the energy is contagious and nourishing, and the people who work there are made of gold, which is a good thing because mostly they don’t get paid. They volunteer. The sharing economy. Very modern. Love thy neighbour. Very old.
Because 541 Eatery is so busy they always need people to work. And Janice Morrison, Krystal Peddle and Mandy Wilson were only too happy to join the team.
As “core members” of L’Arche, they already belonged to a team but, far from being mutually exclusive, they’re all on the side of the angels. L’Arche, founded in 1964 by Jean Vanier (son of late Canadian governor-general Georges Vanier), helps create homes, programs and supports for those with intellectual disabilities.
“I have three jobs, one at the reptile store and two here (541),” says Krystal. “I make sure the floors are washed and I make sure the garbage is recycled.” She also smiles at customers, greets them, talks to them — not technically in her job description. She throws that in extra.
“I say, ‘How are you, miss?’ I get lots of compliments,” says Krystal, eyes flashing with pride. “How good a job I do.”
Mandy started three months ago. “I mostly work on cleaning up tables and getting stuff up from the basement. Oh, and I put the cookies out on the tables. I’d love to work here full-time.”
Janice was the first of the L’Arche members to volunteer at 541. She started in January 2015. She works in the kitchen, food handling.
“The grilled cheese is my best,” says Janice. “I love working here. I love it even more than painting.”
Janice paints. Beautifully, I might add. L’Arche Hamilton core members develop many skills through the programming in the organization’s Creative Hands Studio, in their building at 664 Main St. E. Art, pottery, recreation, walk and fit, yoga, cooking, clothes. Krystal recently made a dress.
“I do mostly flowers and landscapes,” Janice says of her painting. She had pieces in the L’Arche coffee house/art show fundraiser at 541 back in the spring, another aspect of the growing liaison between the two. But then that’s how both L’Arche and 541 work; gardening relationships, putting our larger communities in connection with each other.
“Janice was working at The Freeway coffee house (at Wellington) but it closed and she was looking for a new job,” says Paige McIsaac, community relations and volunteer co-ordinator with L’Arche Hamilton.
“We’d heard about 541, we emailed, had an interview and she started shortly after, Janice (who also volunteers at the Art Gallery of Hamilton) has such a gift of being welcoming,” says Paige. “She’s a great ambassador.”
Sue Carr, executive director of 541 Eatery & Exchange, says, “We’re so supportive of the work L’Arche does. They understand the value of community. We love our L’Arche volunteers. And the place has never been so clean!”
The city, like the human body, is a soft machine; at least it can be. It’s so good, when the gears mesh like this. And it’s not just them finding ways to fit in; they’re changing the world so it can fit in to them.
We love our L’Arche volunteers. And the place has never been so clean! SUE CARR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF 541 EATERY