'Opportunity in disguise'

When construction crews descended on Kelowna’s Leon Avenue to build a behemoth tower across from one of the city's most well established homeless shelters, there were concerns.

Would conflicts happen? Would shelter residents be unsettled?

Months in, both shelter residents and construction workers have been reaping the rewards of a mutually beneficial relationship.

"Any challenge is just an opportunity in disguise,” Carmen Rempel, executive director of the Gospel Mission said.

As crews were brought in to build the two towers of 42 and 24 storeys, it became clear that the construction workers had some needs.

"We were approached by the developers last spring and invited to roll out our food truck to create some revenue for the Mission,” Rempel said.

The food truck had been purchased two years earlier and was not in use, now it serves a regular stream of construction workers.

"It has been wildly successful,” she said.

"We make high quality and nutritious construction-worker sized sandwiches at good prices, so the truck is always busy. In the first quarter of operation we earned enough income from the truck that we were able to launch our transitional employment program.”

The program's purpose is to assist shelter residents in their employment and goals by giving them meaningful employment opportunities on the truck where they can learn employable skills and ease back into the labour market.

The mission now employs two shelter residents through the food truck, which in the world of non profits is pretty remarkable.

"A program that has a built in self-sustaining revenue stream is the dream for non-profits who always have to go looking for funds to support our work,” Rempel said.

"I am so very proud of the leaders who have launched this initiative, grateful for (the developer) who invited us to feed their workers, and thrilled to see it grow to the benefit of many.”

It’s only expected to be a year until the building is fully constructed and hundreds of new residents move in.

Rempel said that, as is the case with any change, there are concerns about that, too.

"I hear that from our residents sometimes,” she said.

“The neighbourhood is going to change. Many people have accessed our shelter on and off for decades, and any time there is change in a neighbourhood there’s gong to be fear, so we are trying to assure everybody it’s all systems are normal for us.”

And, she pointed out, if the construction process was any indication of what’s to come, it should be pretty good.