With the US dollar in the toilet, my buying power isn’t what it used to be. Let’s face it, $20K US a month just doesn’t get you very far in the most expensive city in Canada. As a matter of fact, things have gotten so bad, we ended up dining at a soup kitchen for the homeless! From $60 burgers to a free lunch at the Union Gospel Mission. How humbling is that?
The Union Gospel Mission cares for the hungry, hurting and homeless of Greater Vancouver. Founded in 1940 as a small soup kitchen, UGM now has satellite facilities in Surrey, New Westminster, Mission and downtown Vancouver, and provides services from employment training to affordable housing solutions. UGM serves over 280,000 meals each year, and provides shelter for almost 10,000 individuals a year. Because of contributions to the them in the past, UGM invited us to have lunch on them and take a tour of their facilities.
The Mission is located in the poorest neighborhood in all of Canada, the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, and serves as a beacon of hope for the homeless and hungry. UGM offers drug and alcohol recovery programs, community outreach, low-cost thrift stores, and emergency meals, shelter and clothing.
Union Gospel Mission’s Lorene Vernon and Kevan Gilbert showed us around the entire UGM facilities. It’s much bigger than I thought and includes a drop-in centre, thrift store and an affordable housing complex.
Free Lunch at the Union Gospel Mission
Clockwise from left to right: Michael Kwan, Ed Lau, Kevan Gilbert, Stephen Fung, John Chow, Greg Morgan, and Danny Chang.
For a soup kitchen for the homeless, the food at the UGM was pretty good. I would say almost too good. A homeless person may wish to remain a homeless person if this is what he can eat for free everyday. Stephen ate the most. He ate so much I’m afraid the UGM may not have anything left when the kitchen opens its doors to the people waiting outside.
The House Where I Grew Up
Union Gospel Mission is located at 616 East Cordova Street, which is just across the street from the house where I grew up. Yes, I grew up in the poorest neighborhood in all of Canada. To my amazement, the house is still there. I should buy it and turn it into a safe house or something.
Help Me Raise Money for The UGM Thanksgiving Dinner
Thanksgiving is just around the corner and the UGM needs your help to provide hot Thanksgiving meals and other life-changing services to hungry, hurting and homeless men, women and children in Vancouver. The UGM is an organization that I support and I’m asking you to join me in helping to feed the hungry this Thanksgiving. A complete meal cost only $2.59. This is an amount I believe we can all afford.
I Will Match Your Donation
I will personally match every dollar donated by the John Chow dot Com community up to a maximum of $1000.00. Simply make a donation at UGM’s online donation page, then email me a copy of the email receipt. Feel free to leave a comment about your donation as well.
All readers making donations will be recognized in a blog post this Friday. If you have a website or blog, I will link to it. I grew up in the Downtown Eastside. I did not come from money. I am where I am today because I know that in order to receive any blessings in life, you must first give. The more you give, the more you will receive. The meals and other services we provide can be the start of a new life and new beginning for those in need. Let’s show the Union Gospel Mission that the John Chow dot Com community cares.
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I like how this post is categorized under “fine dining.” I too was very impressed with the food offered in the soup kitchen. I’m still full!
And you mispelled my name! I’ll fix it myself.
I just hope 10 people will enjoy the food just as you did for the thanks giving day with my donation.
I was about to buy a service that was the price of 10 meals pretty much, but I think i can extend the service to the next month. Those money go to UGM for this month. Donated.
Quit frontin’ you know you still live there.
well i think you should dedicate aleast one month of earning to cherity wht do you guys think lets start a vote of we get 100 yes i think john chow will do it. your’s truly Thegeekboys.com
What makes you think I don’t already?
because you haven’t posted it directly like.. saying… “every month a part of my income will go to UGM”
Although… I think you don’t need to do that anymore.
I think alexander was referring to donate a whole month income not a part of the income monthly. John said he had donated $1000 in the past and as far as i understood he was going to donate another $1000 (correct me if I am wrong).
According to MingPao, John Chow donated all 2006’s JohnChow.com earning.
Thats even much much better.
Do ya? Well, Do ya?
how tall are you John? you are the tallest in the pic!
I was totally surprised at how good John’s behaviour was. I was half expecting to get the beat down just by association
It was a really great experience. I had no idea the homeless were fed so well.
Excellent charity. I know you have been working with them for a while, as I donated back in April for their Easter meal. I’ll be emailing you a receipt soon
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday! Donated.
Mine too! That’s why I donated as well.
Great idea! I donated last year too. Will email you receipt.
I assume you took the taxi down? If not, I would like to hear whose car got stolen
Sending you money right now.
The food looks good. They could turn it into a paying restaurant and make money for the homeless.
Yep. The restaurant business would be great.
Why limit the max at $1000? Isn’t that a bit too little? I assume its all Canadian dollars.
I tell you what. If you want to donate more than $1,000, I’ll match you.
lol. you just got your big mouth/fingers whammed by John.
Good luck, big mouth
lucky he didn’t come up with a million dollars or something, that would have been embarrassing
Canadian dollars is greater than USD now!
USD FTL!!
A good charity by the looks of things. Well done on supporting those who need it the most.
Donation done!
Hey John i think you can be a preacher man
you got the words man. I just made a donation for $25.90 CAD.
I will email you the receipt in a jiffy.
Cheers
Michael Boateng
Well done John, finally a good blogging cause…
I have tried to do more or less the same (convince people to give what they don’t need) in Ireland for many years, If we can all do the same, what a better palce the world would be for all of us and our grandchrildren. Good luck with your Canadian Cause.
sadly there are always people who would use it, to scam others.
Looks like a pretty good feed
John,
I am happy to support a charity like this. How do we forward our receipt to you? I don’t think it’s possible using your contact page.
Hey John,
Fantastic post. It was great to have the seven of you come by today. Thanks so much for starting up the pledge-matching idea. Also, Sarah took some great shots.
Just to clarify, the meal we ate is not the same meal that the homeless folks lining up outside will eat. As the guests from the street come in, they get to enjoy a bowl of soup, a sandwich, salad, a pastry and some coffee. The meals that we ate are geared towards the residents of our alcohol and drug recovery program — hence the emphasis on hearty and nutritious food.
I love seeing posts like this.
Yahoo! I donated and am very excited for a link from John Chow!
Damn, sounds like you guys had some good grub…for free! Hmmm…I know where the next Dot Com Pho should be…
Donation made! 
[...] in donation for what John Chow is promoting. The UGM’s online donation, you can read about it here. If you check the comments, you find John Chow saying that he will match my $1000 if I donate a [...]
Nice post! I think it’d be great if you managed to raise that money in three days.
I think it is cool to see how successful you have become starting from that house.
Sent right now, should I sent the receipt through your contact form?
You can forward a copy to johnchow@johnchow.com
I sent through the contact form, should I forward it to that email instead?
Hey John,
Great to know that you are a guy with heart, where you give your time and money for those that in need.
I’ve worked with a charity close to my heart and my country of origin Philippines. GK777.
Keep up the good work.
Cheers,
Carlo Selorio
You should put do some more charity work/posts.
I donated to help feed 10 people =-) Who’s will to match or beat me?
Yea its not a big donation but I’m limited in my funds…every bit helps right!
As for me- charity is the most blessed mankind performance.
I was going to donate via paypal - but they won’t let me do so unless I fork out 10 meals worth. I was happy to donate $10 to the cause, but all my online dosh is in paypal, egold, netteller etc and not on a Credit Card.
They should really change it so you can donate any amount via paypal - I suspect if you e-mailed paypal they will remove the transfer fees for charities.
Now I have to digg out my Credit Card or fork out 10 meals. ;\
Maybe that’s their sneaky way of growing donations.
Looks like it’s working.
they don’t accept paypal as donation?
I donated some money. Good initiative, John. I also like your crew that you roll with… which one is your bodyguard?
Your post is very good. I feel it is a must for every human being to donate some amount of their earning to such homes and poor people. It’s we who have come out of scratch we know the value of money and we can put it to proper use.
Great job John. I guess keep doing such things and keep writing about it from time to time to remind us all that we too need to help others in some form or the other.