Over the past year The Maundy Ministry has expanded its reach and its services to our community in Vancouver’s downtown and West End neighbourhoods. That expansion is set to continue in the fall with the addition of new team members and new partnerships.
Effective September 1, Vienne Chan becomes Director of The Maundy Ministries. This position was previously filled by the Rev. Marnie Peterson. To round out the Maundy team, Ian Thompson has been hired as the new Outreach Worker for the year. This new position is fully funded by grants and is an exciting opportunity for The Maundy to serve guests and community. He can be contacted at ian@thecathedral.ca.
In addition, Nolan Murray has been hired as the new Hospitality and Food Coordinator. He comes to the Cathedral and The Maundy from Toronto with a wealth of experience in restaurants and non-profit work around homelessness. Nolan will be taking over the Cafe and will be working on new initiatives like cooking classes and training programs. He can be contacted at nolan@thecathedral.ca.
Thanks to the wonders of video, you can meet Ian and Nolan here. Of course, you can also meet Ian and Nolan in person starting September 8th at the Cafe.
Now for the sad news...
Due to the new restrictions and the uncertainty of the fall, the Maundy team has made the difficult decision of postponing the re-introduction of indoor dining until January. This means Maundy will continue offering lunch “to-go” until the end of the year.
There will be a small change to the schedule as of October 4th: Lunch will be served on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays to better meet the needs of Maundy guests. Volunteers from the Seaforth Highlanders will continue to join us on the first Friday of every month to serve meals and help with the Fresh Food Market. First Baptist Church will continue to offer a to go dinner once a month on the Tuesday before welfare cheque day.
Finally, one small item to celebrate: above you'll see a brand new logo created over the summer for The Maundy Ministries. This recognizes that The Maundy now offers a variety of services, all of which aim to harness the power of good food to build health, belonging, and reconciliation in communities affected by systems that perpetuate poverty.