He and parishioners at St. Albans, where he is the incumbent priest, were inspired to create some pilot projects on campus serving meals to students over the last few years. They began by serving meals at one of the student residences where students who didn’t have meal plans lived.

Throughout this past academic year, St. Albans teamed up with the student union, which has its own food insecurity initiative “Fed up.” They moved their program to a central hub area on the main campus and served three lunches and a dinner each semester. The meals were cooked by St. Albans’ parishioners with student volunteers on campus, and to encourage students to cook nutritious and low-cost meals for themselves, the team handed out recipes for the dishes they were serving.

Not surprisingly, the free meals have been a big hit with the students. Garner reports that they served a burrito dinner for their last meal of the semester in mid-April to 385 students. The students are grateful, and Garner says the volunteers often hear that the meal is the only one some students will eat that day.

Students have enjoyed the opportunities for social connections the meals create. Encouraged to sit down and eat and talk together, students offered feedback that the project has had a positive effect on their health. Aside from the food, they benefited from the social connections and a greater sense of belonging.

St. Albans volunteers also made efforts to take a break and sit down to eat and talk with students. Garner was pleased to hear that the students appreciated the opportunities to connect with the adults from the parish. Although, he expected that it would be most appealing to have student peers serving the food, feedback from the student union included comments that the students valued opportunities to have conversations with the adult volunteers from the parish. They appreciated having an adult ask how they were doing, how their day or semester was going, and the sense that these adults cared about them.

The St. Albans group has sought and welcomed partners from other parishes, denominations and faith groups to bolster their efforts in whatever capacity they can contribute. Even if a group can’t take on providing a whole meal, contributing to part of a meal is a valuable way to get involved and support the project. For example, Garner said, a number of United Churches got together and offered to donate dessert for the final meal of the term in April. Initially, they estimated they could provide about 150 servings. However, their bakers participated enthusiastically, and they ended up bringing more than 500 servings. “It was this overwhelming amount of food. That just created such joy…. It was great,” he recalled.

“My hope is next year to continue to cultivate relationships with churches and other groups who can provide supplemental things, like baking biscuits when we were doing soup and that sort of thing. I’m looking for all sorts of ways to lower the barrier to entry to churches and other groups,” he said, suggesting that sometimes people feel overwhelmed by a big problem like student food insecurity and feel that they can’t do anything. “I think the real power of this is that there are smaller ways to …come and be involved.”

Garner acknowledges that the meals can’t solve the problem of food insecurity on campus, but he was pleased to see that highlighting the problem and advocacy work seems to be spurring some action on the issue. The president of the university created an initiative to write an action plan for food security for the whole campus. Garner served on the committee with one of the deans in medicine and St. Albans was included as an external partner.

Pilot project aims to counter students’ social isolation

The Rev. Michael Garner has seen that students at the University of Ottawa, like many people in the broader society, have more communication tools at their fingertips than humans have ever had, but many are socially isolated. He says that loneliness is sometimes described as an epidemic in our digitally connected society where people need more time and real connection with other people in person.

Garner has worked closely with the U of O Student Union on issues of food insecurity, and one day ran into Meredith Kerr, the executive director, in Costco. “What are we going to do about loneliness on campus?” she asked him.

He says his first thought was “I have no idea.” But it was immediately followed by, “I know exactly what we are going to do.” Peg Herbert, a parishioner at St. Albans had come to mind.

“She’s a remarkable woman,” he said. Among the many cool things she has done is starting an organization called Chosen Grandma, which pairs retired women who don’t have grandchildren, or don’t have grandchildren in the city, with single moms, single parent families, creating this connectedness. The idea has caught on and Chosen Grandma has been featured on the CBC news. Garner noted that Herbert is developing this charity even though there are additional legal challenges because there are minors involved, but the point is to give children a “chosen grandma.” He realized that Herbert had all that valuable experience creating connections in a safe way.

So, while standing there in Costco, he thought, “‘We’ll just take Peg’s idea and apply it on campus.’ And that’s what we’re doing,” he told Perspective.

Room Enough is a pilot project will match 10 students with 10 families or households in the next academic year. “It’s really about facilitating the need of students, the desire of these households to connect … and support each other and learn from each other,’ he said. The pilot for this academic year will be a test run to see how this works, see what doesn’t work. They will track participants’ feedback on their mental health, the connection between the students and their matched households. “If we have a positive outcome and we have some data, we’ll go to the university to look at scaling it up for more people to participate in the next year.

The diocesan Future Fund awarded the project a grant of $10,000, which Garner says will help hire a student to be a part-time co-ordinator for the program.

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In 2024, the parish ran a pilot project serving a free meal once a month at the Friel student residence using funds left over from Open Table, a pre-pandemic ecumenical project, and a $5,000 grant from the Anglican Foundation. Last year, they served 12 meals at the residence, partnering with St. Bartholomew’s parish for two of them and with a couple of other groups for others. Each meal attracted about 250 students, and St. Albans heard very positive feedback.

The Rev. Michael Garner, incumbent at St. Albans, acknowledges that meals such as these don’t address the larger problem of student food insecurity, but the project was intended to raise awareness at the university and to build a sense of community. The meals served in the Friel residence last year encouraged students to sit down and eat together. “In the individual conversations I have with students, whether I’m serving at a meal or as a chaplain in a meeting, there’s a broad sense of loneliness. That’s societal, but it’s certainly on campus,” Garner said.

In that sense the meals were an outreach of pastoral care for students. “It’s a group of people saying we actually care about you guys, and you don’t have to do anything for us, but we’ll be here and we’re going to eat some food and care for you in tangible ways, but then if you want to have a conversation, you know, we’re here as well.”

Being at the residence every two weeks allowed the parish volunteers to get to know a lot of the students. Garner recounted how one of the St. Albans parishioners was volunteering as a greeter. While talking with one young man she asked why he kept looking over at a person sitting at a table alone. “I kind of want to ask her out,” he said. She encouraged him to just go sit with her and then saw that they spent the evening chatting. There were small moments like that, but Garner said they also helped a couple of students apply for Masters’ programs and other pragmatic things “because they got to know and trust us.”

Despite all the positive feedback, Garner said the university told him they didn’t have funding to help continue the program at the Friel residence this year.

The University of Ottawa Students’ Union, however, was keen to partner with St. Albans. I’ve been building relationships within the undergraduate student union. They run the food bank on campus, and we had done a food pantry [in the chaplaincy office] a couple years ago. so we had a link with them. Over time, I think our different activities on campus sort of gave us legitimacy with the student union….. So, we’ve pivoted this fall and we’re doing some pilots this year on the main campus.”

As a part of “Fed Up,” the union’s food security program, three or four student volunteers with work with some St. Albans congregation members. “We’re going to start cooking the meal together at 8 or 9 in the morning, and then serve a free lunch for students in an atrium area of the student union building.

Their first lunch was on Oct. 5. “I got a great deal on three massive induction friendly pots that each hold 24 quarts, and so we made 60 litres of red lentil soup with North African spices and paprika butter,” said Garner. Afterwards, the student volunteers will get the recipe and a gift card for a grocery store along with the encouragement: “You’ve made this recipe, now cook it for your friends and have a meal together.” So, it is both to empower them on how to cook nutritious, cheap food but also the importance of gathering together.”  On Nov. 5, they plan to cook vegetarian chili and then on Dec. 3, do another mean at Friel when St. Albans members and students can just eat together.

Garner says he has been struck by how keen the student union has been to promote St. Albans as their partner. “One of my theological convictions is if the church just expresses the fruits of the spirit — kindness and patience and gentleness and all of these traits— in the world, it becomes hugely attractive.” He added that some of the students who don’t attend the church have been recommending it to others. “’If you are looking for a church, you should try St. Albans.’ It was bizarre, and it was just lovely because they’re seeing us as people who care about students.”

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University of Ottawa students love the meal at Friel

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The Rev. Michael Garner, who is Incumbent at St. Albans as well a part of the multi-faith chaplaincy at the university, was inspired to start the project after learning that food insecurity is a common problem for university students, magnified by recent high levels of inflation. He learned that the campus food bank has very limited resources and often runs out of food. Although a meal once every two weeks isn’t the solution for student food insecurity on campus, it is a part of an effort to raise awareness about the issue, and it provides an opportunity for church groups to express care and concern for students and a social event to help students connect with one another.

Students at the Sept. 25 dinner expressed their appreciation and spoke about the struggle to make ends meet. “Sometimes I wonder if I should just eat the same thing over and over to save money,” one student told Perspective. “I’m lucky that I can ask my parents for help, but I don’t want to be asking them all the time,” she said, noting that spending $150 recently amounted to surprisingly few groceries that would not last through the month.

The project follows in the footsteps of an ecumenical program called Open Table that St. Albans used to participate in with United and Presbyterian churches to host meals on campus before the pandemic. Open Table has provided $12,000 from its remaining funds for this project, half of which is being used to pay a student co-ordinator, and the other half will help pay for food and supplies. The alumni association heard about the project and donated $2,000 for equipment such as bain-maries to keep food hot while it is being served.

St. Albans’ parishioners have prepared and served two meals so far. They are looking for other Anglican parishes, ecumenical and interfaith partners to participate in the program.

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About half of the 60 parishioners have taken training to be able to assess a person’s condition and administer Naloxone if they encounter someone they suspect has overdosed.

Parishioner Moira Alie described working as a team when they were called to help a man at the end of a Sunday service a couple of years ago. “I grabbed the Naloxone kits that the church had, and I also had my own Naloxone kit…,” she recalls. A couple of people had already started trying to resuscitate him with nasal sprays of Naloxone, but it wasn’t working. “I just kept handing them more and more of the Naloxone… and at the same time I called 911 and was giving the information to the dispatcher. It was looking really bad. The man was turning blue and was clearly without oxygen, but the Naloxone kits weren’t working. Every single one wasn’t until the last one that they used. Finally, he came to and actually stood up right away.” It’s helpful that a large number of people at St. Albans who know [what to do] and can act, she said.

Of course, there are challenges, Garner said, but in his two years in the parish, they have worked closely with 454 and trust has grown. In late July, the whole south wall of the church was defaced with graffiti. The centre staff let him know and sent photos. “We decided that it was too much to be reasonably cleaned by parishioners and centre staff, so we hired the graffiti company. They came in and cleaned it up. It was all done within eight hours,” he said. Both Centre 454 and the parish take a calm, proactive approach. “We’re just going to roll with these things,” he said.

The parish tries to champion Belong Ottawa and act as a bridge with the community.

Garner said it is important to realize what remarkable work the 454 staff does. “The Centre continues to rise to the challenge, but it’s crazy that we have social support workers doing frontline [first aid for overdoses.]” He hopes the City will provide funding for a nurse. “The Centre is being asked to do more with the same [resources] and the complexity is getting higher and higher. That’s really problematic.”

He added that he is inspired by the compassion, love and care program manager Dean Dewar and executive director Rachel Robinson approach the people who come to Centre 454 with. “It’s a lesson to me, I think it’s a lesson to the congregation that we continue to learn.”  

Related story: Belong Ottawa at Centre 454: Getting by with help from friends

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The Rev. Michael Garner began the project last winter after being dismayed by the number of students he met as a campus chaplain who could not afford adequate food and hearing that the campus food bank often ran out of food mid-week. He met with the head of residences for the university and learned that there are five buildings where students do not have meal plans and must provide their own food. Many of those students are in those residences because the meal plans are beyond their means. He suggested that St. Albans could host a meal for those students once a month and was pleased that the offer was welcomed.

With some funding from Open Table, an ecumenical project that St. Albans used to participate in with United and Presbyterian churches to host meals on campus before the pandemic, and a $5,000 grant from the Anglican Foundation of Canada, St. Alban’s hosted three meals at the Friel residence last winter.

Ironically, St. Albans is the only Anglican church in Ottawa that doesn’t have a kitchen, and the Friel residence doesn’t have one either, so parishioners did all the cooking in the homes (and one man brought a crock pot to his office to cook while he worked and then delivered it directly to the residence.) The meals were well-attended. About 150 students came to the first one, and the second time there were more than 200. There were some communication problems with the university for the third one, but there were still about 130 students for that meal. The first one for this coming school year is planned for Sept. 11.

While providing a meal once or twice a month won’t solve the problem of student hunger, it is a way of highlighting the problem, which is widespread through universities across the country. Garner has been involved with a working group focusing on the problem at the University of Ottawa campus. One of the things they are advocating on campus is a communal kitchen space for students for programming like cooking classes. Many students don’t have the skills to shop or to know how to cook healthy, inexpensive meals. “Given all of the challenges right now around the cost of food, those are even more important,” Garner said.

“The university asked us to continue the program, so we are going to do six meals this [school] year, every second week. St. Albans is going to do three, and I’m trying to get church partners, both Anglican and non-Anglican, to do the other three,” Garner says, adding that he is open to other faith groups who might want to participate as well. A Reform church is planning to do one meal.

This year, the Open Table fund provided $12,000, half of which is being used to pay a student co-ordinator, and the other half will pay for food and supplies. The alumni association heard about the project and donated $2,000 for equipment such as bain-maries to keep food hot while it is being served.

Garner says one of the goals this year is to build on the social aspect of the meals. Students in the residences without meal plans usually eat alone in their dorms. They have located bigger tables for this year and want to encourage the students to stay to talk with one another. The residence lead is also keen to make it a bit more of a social event to build up residence life. Garner added that he is encouraging St. Albans volunteers serving the meals to also talk with the students. “If there’s nothing to do in that moment, grab some food and sit down and have a conversation with a student. There’s so much information that loneliness is an epidemic in our society,” he said.

Garner is also looking for ways to help other parishes and churches participate. “I think a lot of churches feel a diminished capacity,” he said, encouraging them to get in touch with him if budgetary concerns are an obstacle. “I’ll get you the groceries if you can cook,” he said.

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Doing some more research over that summer, he was told that use of the student-run food bank on campus had increased far beyond its capacity, and its office often ran out of food mid-week, even though students are limited to going there once a month.

“The chaplaincy office exists in the mental health and wellness area of the university, which is great, but it’s hard to talk about mental health and wellness if you’re starving,” he told Crosstalk.

Before the pandemic, St. Albans had been a part of a long-running ecumenical project with the United and Presbyterian churches called Open Table, in which the churches hosted a meal for students once a month. That ended when they could no longer gather during the pandemic, but with a bit of the leftover funds, St Albans created a food cupboard in the chaplaincy office and promoted awareness of it by giving away boxes of macaroni and cheese in the first week of school last fall.

Garner says the food cupboard in the chaplaincy office is stocked with non-perishable items such as canned beans, lentils, tomatoes and pasta, oatmeal, crackers and peanut butter. “There are two challenges. One is making students aware. Two, it’s overcoming the feeling of shame…. If you’re a second-year student, and you’re in what’s supposed to be the best time of your life and you’re having to go to a food bank…..It’s a challenging time.” One of the first people who came to get some food from the cupboard was a graduate student from Senegal who was living at the Shepherds of Good Hope shelter,” he said.

Garner also met with the head of residences for the university, learning that while many students live in residences with meal plans, there are five buildings where the students are responsible for providing their own food, and many of those students are in those residences because the meal plans are beyond their means. He asked if it might be possible for St. Albans to host a meal in one of the residences for students without meal plans, and was pleasantly surprised when her answer was ‘absolutely.’

So now, bolstered and supported by a $5,000 grant from the Anglican Foundation, St. Albans is planning a pilot project, hosting a meal once a month for any students living in the residences without meal plans in January, February and March. Residence staff told Garner to be prepared to feed about 150 students.

“The Anglican Foundation of Canada (AFC) is pleased to support St. Alban’s in this multi-faith chaplaincy initiative benefiting students at the University of Ottawa. AFC has a history of supporting ecumenical campus ministry projects across Canada, and to see a new project come from our 2023 RFP Viriditas is deeply rewarding,” said AFC executive director Scott Brubacher.

If the pilot project goes well, Garner hopes to expand to a weekly program next year. St. Albans would seek partners who could host one meal per semester. The partners don’t need to be Anglican, he said. “It could be another Anglican church, that would be lovely, or it could be a synagogue or a mosque, … and through the Open Table we have some links to the United Church and the Presbyterian Church, so hopefully we can talk to them.”

Garner also began some advocacy work on this issue. As an alumnus of the University of Ottawa, he received an invitation to the alumni association annual general meeting, decided to attend, asked a question and was able to share what he had learned about student food insecurity. “The Alumni Association [members] were totally unaware, just like I had been totally unaware,” he said. Discussions with the alumni association since have led to plans for them to fund another food pantry somewhere on campus, but Garner has also suggested that the association could get involved with bigger projects such as a breakfast program for students.

“The problem … is not unique to Ottawa U. It’s pervasive on campuses,” said Garner. “My hope is that there’s a bigger alumni movement….For any of the myriad of issues facing our communities, we need to work in networks…. We can’t solve the student hunger problem, but we can advocate, and we can get some momentum and then bring in other people alongside.”

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