The long awaited Scent of a Sandwich is now open! They do eat in, take out, and catering of – you guessed it – sandwiches!

In particular, they make hot sandwiches stuffed to the gills with gourmet meats, cheeses and veggies. They also have a nutella and bananna option for a sophisticated alternative to the old favorite PB&J. Their catering menu is more extensive, offering breakfast pastries, fruit platters, cheese platters, dips and more. They also offer free consultations if you want do do an extra special lunch presentation for your office, so don’t hesitate to get in touch with Thomas and let him know exactly what you need!

What we really admire about Scent of a Sandwich is that they’re on board with the idea of inclusive revitalization, where economic development that takes place in historically under-served communities like the DTES is intentionally inclusive of existing residents in businesses. Scent of a Sandwich has demonstrated their commitment to inclusive revitalization by partnering with local employment agencies like BOB and Pathways, hiring locally through the Pathways 100 Hired Challenge, and improving their formerly vacant storefront on Main Street between Pender and Abbot (in partnership with BOB and the City of Vancouver’s Facade Program). BOB also put on a BusinessLinks session with them to do a culinary & catering staff skills training event.

Furthermore, they’re also interested in being sustainable, and are doing all their deliveries by tricycle! Looks like they’re using disposable plates at the moment, though…surely that will change soon once they get more established.

You can check them out in their new location at 418 Main St. Welcome to the neighborhood from the whole team here at BOB!

That’s right, the much anticipated W2 Media Cafe is open for business! They’re serving yummy Saltspring coffee and a variety of other delicious offerings. Come for the food & drink, stay for the community, politics, media and art!

The media cafe is collectively run social enterprise with a mandate to provide accessible technology for media and communications to all those to all those who need it. And that need is a pressing one: according to W2′s statistics, at least 6,000 DTES residents are without telephone, internet, or computer access. We see this in BOB’s Supported Employment Program, where many of our clients describe having no phone or computer at home, and get only limited access to communications technology through inner-city community resources that are often very busy and only open during standard business hours; many see this lack of access to technology as an obstacle to achieving their goals in life and on the job. It can also make it hard to find a job, secure permanent housing, and assert one’s voice to advocate for political change.

Fojan, an acting student, is making delicious coffee and helping with W2 programming

In terms of community, W2 hired all local DTES and East Van residents to staff the cafe. BOB’s BusinessLinks program assisted the W2 team with with hiring outreach and candidate selection, and sponsored barista training for 12 folks to get FoodSafe certification, customer service training, a programming overview of the media cafe, and more. Cafe staff are getting great opportunities to build skills and pursue activities beyond the cafe counter; several of our BusinessLinks graduates enthusiastically report getting involved with event coordination and program development for projects like the W2 Letterpress Studio and kids & youth media camp.

Debbie is a mother of 3 made temporarily homeless by unwanted apartment renovations in East Vancouver. She plays goalie for the DTES Women’s Street Soccer team and is going to Paris to play in the 2011 Homeless World Cup. She and her family are now well housed. She cites her employment at the cafe, as well as the community she connected with there, as a key part of her return to housing stability. Congratulations Debbie!

Tech geeks, artists, and anyone interested in DIY electronics will appreciate the interactive light display largely DIY’d by W2′s Tech Director WillStacey. You control the interface from within the cafe. Adjust the display pattern and the RGB scale, and look up to see the results! More exciting interactive art and technology installations to come through their Media Artist in Residence Program. Sensitive to the needs of the neighborhood, the cafe also provides free community meeting space, publicly accessible washrooms and lounge, a community media lab, and much more.

BOB is pleased to be part of supporting the start-up of W2 Media Cafe through our Loans Program. We congratulate all the founders and staff on the cafe opening, and look forward to seeing more great things come out of this ambitious project founded on grassroots principles of social inclusion. Well done!

Are you a DTES resident with an interest in the arts and community media? Do you have a customer service background, or an interest in developing one? W2 Media Cafe is hiring baristas, and they are committed to hiring from the inner city!

BOB is working with W2 Media Cafe to recruit and train potential candidates. If you are interested in this opportunity, come to our barista training information night on Wednesday April 27th from 4-6pm. The session will be held at the W2 Media Cafe, #250-111 West Hastings.

If you have any questions, please contact Lani Johnson at 778-328-7674 or lani.johnson@bobics.org.

The session will include a presentation about the community work W2 Media Cafe does, as well as information about the barista positions. Please bring your resume and be prepared for a short screening interview.

Successful candidates will be selected for a week-long training session put on by BOB that will include the opportunity to get certified in Foodsafe and Serving it Right.

BOB is excited to partner with W2 Media Cafe to provide the barista information and training sessions through our BusinessLinks program. By hiring inner-city residents to staff their inner-city business, W2 Media Cafe is contributing to inclusive revitalization through building community capacity. Well done!

One of the most famous signs in Vancouver features a smiling pig, clutching a bag of money. To nearly every Vancouverite, this sign marks an institution in this city: Save-On Meats. The neon glow from the sign continues to light Hastings Street despite the venerable butcher shop standing empty for nearly two years.

Former owner Al DesLauriers had several offers for the building in the 1990s from prospective condo developers who were drooling over the site. He turned them down, stating that he would rather give up his business for free to someone who wanted to maintain the butchery.

Rumours have been swirling since last year that Save-On Meats was being bought by restaurateur Mark Brand. Brand has ample experience in the business, having opened Boneta, The Diamond, and Sea Monstr Sushi in Gastown.

In a report published by the City of Vancouver last week, it became official: early in 2011, the doors of Save-On Meats will open once again, under Brand’s ownership.

Many organizations came together to make this happen.

Our former Business and Social Enterprise Developer, Brian Smith, helped BOB partner with Vancity to provide a $500,000 loan to Brand for this project. As well, the City of Vancouver supplied a grant of $35,000 through the Greenest City Neighbourhood Grants program to catalyze the re-opening. The façade of the building will be upgraded under the Hastings Street Renaissance Project.

Another partnership that was integral was the one with Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House. Part of their Kitchen Tables project is to widely introduce their food philosophy in the neighbourhood. The Neighbourhood House’s food philosophy states that no one should be without access to healthy and natural foods. Food is one of the basic human rights, and nutrition can play a big role in physical and mental wellbeing.

This is where Brand hopes Save-On Meats will come in.

The building is three stories tall; each floor will have a different function.

The first floor will include a walk-in meat counter and café open to the public, as it had been since 1957.

The second floor will feature a commissary, a centralized food-making facility that will supply Brand’s restaurants. Those who work in this communal kitchen will be local residents trained through a program at Potluck Café and Catering, conveniently located across the street.

The third floor would be the operating area for the Downtown Eastside food incubator, which would encourage entrepreneurs in the neighbourhood to build upon their ideas. Incubators such as this one help small businesses sustain themselves.

The words “SAVE OUR CITY” have been painted across the boarded up storefront at Save-On Meats. Interpret it how you will, but this could be the start of a new era for Hastings Street. Once a vibrant retail area that catered to everyone regardless of income level, Save-On Meats could be the very spark to reignite the flame.

In smaller letters underneath the graffiti reads ‘Work in Progress’. It is pretty safe to say that Brand, the citizens of Vancouver, and especially DesLauriers are happy with the direction in which that progress is heading.

Every month, the Supported Employment Team here at BOB hosts what we call a SHINE supper for clients of our program. Anyone who is currently participating in the program, or has in the past, is welcome to attend. Most times, the meal is catered (usually by Potluck Café and Catering) or purchased from Costco. This month, we decided to try something different.

Produce selection at Quest

We have been giving out food vouchers for Quest Food Exchange to clients for quite some time now. An idea came up that perhaps we should see what kind of meals we could come up with ourselves with supplies from Quest. It would not only be a test of our creativity, but would give us a scope of the opportunities and restrictions for a person living with limited resources.

Quest has several locations around Metro Vancouver. Their mandate is to rescue food that is on the brink of becoming waste and see that it gets used.

Ada and I visited the Dundas Street warehouse location, as it has the largest selection of food and goods.  We met with Pardeep Khrod, who gave us a quick tour of what was available and helped us make a meal plan for the dinner. Searching through the aisles, many possible meals were running through our heads. Pardeep helped us narrow down our options to a chicken parmesan-type meal, complete with lots of fresh vegetables to include in the sauce and garlic bread to accompany.

Our total at Quest, including 30 pieces of breaded chicken, came to less than $50. Even with a couple of last minute provisions from Nesters Market, the amount spent was nearly ¾ less than the usual cost of putting on a dinner for 15-20 people.

Ada with our purchases

Shopping was the easy part.  

The kind people at Jacob’s Well  graciously let us use their kitchen space for the afternoon before the dinner. We carted our Quest goodies over to their kitchen. Jacob’s Well had all of the cooking utensils we could ever need, which we realized might not be realistic for most people shopping at Quest. However, our meal was still rather simple to prepare and required only the most basic of items.

The preparation was a little scattered: “What should we make first?”, “How long will things take?”, ”These onions are making me cry!” As a vegetarian, I was worried about my lack of knowledge on chicken cooking times; Ada assured me that it was pre-cooked. After that wave of relief washed over me, it was back to tearing up over a cutting board of onion slices.

We had two hours to put it all together, and managed to pack everything up just in the nick of time. When we returned to the office, we were pleasantly surprised to be met with a sizable turnout of clients.

At the dinner, a discussion is often led about the pressures of working or successes on the job. This time, we got everyone chatting about what they do in terms of feeding themselves. We had lots of interesting suggestions. The best one was to cook for a whole week at a time, to save on preparation time later and ensure that nutritious meals are available for several days. One client said that he combined beans, rice and vegetables with spices or a sauce, kept it in several containers and had that over the week. This can also be done with food like oatmeal, pasta, or stir-frys. Shopping at Quest serves this style of eating well, as its best to use food purchased there fairly soon. Once cooked, though, it can be refrigerated or frozen for later use.

While cleaning up, we discussed the success of this month’s dinner. It was definitely great to see how Quest works firsthand and we had fun preparing everything. When all was said and done though, we probably would not “cater” a meal for 20 people again. We’ll leave that to the experts. I’m sure they know the secret to cutting onions without crying.