In From The Cold
Please join us Saturday, Nov 16 for our first IFTC meals for the 2024-25 season. Everyone is welcome. Doors open at 2pm and dinner is served from 3:30-5. Please note that due to problems with our lift, we cannot provide access to the hall for guests with wheelchairs. However take-out meals will be available to guests in wheelchairs from 3:00-4:30.
The IN FROM THE COLD program will run on Saturdays from November 16th, 2024, to December 21st with a break over the Christmas period and then from January 4th, 2025, to March 22nd. We cook and serve a delicious 4-course meal, host live music from local bands and get together.
For more information, send an email to : IFTC@parkdaleunitedchurch.ca
Highlights from our 2023-24 season
Our “In From the Cold (IFTC)” program ended March 23 for the 2023-24 season. Over 19 Saturdays we welcomed guests to Parkdale United Church to enjoy a 4-course meal lovingly prepared in our kitchen. In addition to the delicious food, our guests were entertained with live music, enjoyed arts/crafts and reading books/magazines and socialized.
We hosted on average 109 guests per week (increase of 35% from last season) and served 2,064 meals (up 40% from last year), and provided left-overs to guests and community partners. IFTC has certainly grown in popularity over the past 22 years when it started in November 2002 with only 35 guests.
Our Servers were comprised of community groups including students from Carleton University and Algonquin College; faith-based groups such as, Trinity Presbyterian Church, Osgoode Baptist Church, and Vernon and Woodroffe United Churches; groups of colleagues from Deloitte, the Canadian Medical Association, the American Embassy; and groups of friends and families.
We are so thankful for our wonderful volunteers who are so dedicated to serve and to our community partners who donated supplies and food. This year, these businesses included:
- The Ottawa Bagel Shop
- GTxpress
- Art Is In Bakery
- Wellington West Retirement Community
- Quickie Mart – Gladstone
The 2024-25 season will resume again this fall from mid-November to March 2025. Please check back for exact dates this fall.
Background about IFTC
The purpose of In From the Cold (IFTC) ministry is to provide deliciously prepared dinners to guests experiencing poverty or other challenges in the environment of safety, loving hospitality, respect and dignity.
In addition to the Saturday afternoon dinner, there are opportunities to create art; read a book or magazine; listen to live music and sing; and to have joys and concerns prayed over each week.
IFTC runs every Saturday from mid-November to mid-March between 2 and 5 PM, except for the Saturdays between Christmas and New Year’s.
Volunteers
Every week, more than 70 people including members of Parkdale United Church and community friends volunteer to support various tasks such as:
- purchasing food and supplies
- setting up the tables and chairs in the hall and preparing the beverages and snacks
- preparing food in the kitchen under the guidance of the Chef
- greeting our guests as they arrive and assisting them in getting to/from the hall
- scheduling volunteers and community groups
- serving beverages and snacks prior to dinner
- offering craft and reading opportunities via our craft and literacy table
- providing musical entertainment
- serving the 4-course meal
- preparing sandwiches to distribute to guests when they leave
- washing dishes and cleaning up the kitchen
- doing laundry
- delivering any left-over food to community partners
In addition to our volunteers who come individually, we welcome groups (15-20 people) who volunteer together serving the meal. These groups have included;
- Various faith-based organizations
- College and university students
- Ottawa-based companies who support their employees’ volunteerism.
- Groups of friends and neighbours
- Sport teams
- Community service groups (e.g. Kiwanis)
Generous Donors
We are extremely grateful to local merchants and business people who have generously donated food and other supplies:
- Art-Is-In Bakery
- GTxpress
- Ottawa Bagel Shop and Deli
- Wellington West Retirement Community
- Quickie Mart – Gladstone
How you can show you care…
- If you would like to volunteer and want more information about the various shift opportunities, please send an email to CiCi and Christina IFTC@parkdaleunitedchurch.ca.
- Consider making a financial contribution to continue to support the operational costs of IFTC. This can be done via the PUC website or contacting the church office.
- The Literacy Table is grateful to receive books in good condition (particularly biographies, coffee table books, history, crafts) and “newer” magazines dated April 2024 onwards. Please leave them in the green box outside the Chapel or give them to a Literacy Table Volunteer any Saturday between November and March.
Testimonies From Our Guests
“Thank you for a series of joyful Saturdays.”
“Thank you to everyone who had worked to prepare all the delicious meals which all of us ate & enjoyed. God bless everyone.”
“God sent an angel to earth when he sent you. Thank you for everything. ”
“Your food is good”
“Thanks so much for your caring heart & compassion! ”
“May God continue to bless you and send his angels to watch over you.”
“This has become a wonderful community for me this year. I will miss it in the summer.”
“What a meal Saturday so good and band was great”
“I would LOVE to come by and have company for a meal for a change. Eating alone all the time is depressing.”
“I really don’t like salad but that salad was amazing.”
