ground needed for Harvest tc

Call 983-9488,
Your hometown will be a

THE seeds of their
Harvest have borne
many lasting communi-
ty blooms.

It's dedicated to helping
the homeless and the hope-
fess. Bur that same Harvest is
faced with homelessness itself.

David and Emiko Foster's
Harvest Project has been
working the North Shore
streets from its 166 West
Esplanade location since July
1993. During that time it has
overcome much of the skepti-
cism that traditionally greets
self-styled generators of good
deeds. It has also helped put
North Var: 4..r social ser-
vices on the ssp with an
enlightened program of self-
help.

‘The Harvest Project was
founded in the wake of David
Foster’s own fall from grace. -

His lifestyle as a personal
fitness business owner living
the high life in the British
Properties came to an abrup
end in 1987 when a bad
investment coupled with a
lifestyle fuelled by drugs and
alcohol sent him plummeting
from the penthouse to the
outhouse.

His humbling experience
formed the core of what dri-
ves the Harvest Project:
handouts and welfare lines
don’t lead to personal recov-
ery.

Foster keeps his first wel-

fare receipt as a reminder of
that truth. It’s also a
reminder that what the pco-
ple waiting in those lines real-
ly need to put their lives back
on track is self-esteem, self-
confidence and dignity ——
qualities that don’t come
with handouts.

The Harvest Project is

_. based therefore on people
helping themselves — not
helping themselves to your
tax dollars via intrusive gov-
ernment bureaucracies.

- Cynics will doubtless find
the Fosters’ credo of “a hand
up not a handout” a touch
trite. Bur for those cut adrift
on the street, trite does not
enter the equation. Survival
does. Lifejackets come in all

. shapes and sizes. You grab

what you can.

For thousands of North
Shore residents over the past
six years that Harvest hand-
up has helped them recover
from personal tragedy and
misfortune with dignity.

It has in the words of
Harvest user Jill Wiekard
“helped me by giving me
strength to move forward
and to believe in myself with-
out (Harvest staff) looking
down at mc.”

And it’s a program that’s
being examined by communi-
tes as far away as Toronto
and New York as a way for
their communities to address
poverty, homelessness and
hopelessness free of govern-
ment pokenoses.

A bountiful harvest
indeed.

The Fosters of course will
tell you that their best harvest
would be the need for no
Harvest at all. But the reality
remains that a growing num-
ber of people from every
social strata rely on it as a
community port in the storm
when their lives unravel.

So what’s the beef here?

All this talk of seif-
reliance, government-free
community self-help, etc.,

‘why come knocking on my

door with your Harvest prob-
lems?

Well, first off, the landlord
has come knocking on the

Harvest’s.

%

eS

S.LAURSEN &
draperies

7 Serving the Lower Mainlan

North Vancouver City has
notified the Fosters that as of
May 1 they sill have six
months to find new digs.

The west Esplanade site
will be part of a large upseale
Lower Lonsdale zemmercial
development.

And the Harves: and its
clientele are anything but
upscale.

Thus the recent Feb, 17
meeting of Harvest Project
pnneipals, city officials and
Harvest supporters aimed at
finding the Harvest a new
home.

It's 1 tall order

In some ways the Harvest
is a victim of its own success.
Its various programs and ser-
vices aimed at helping people
move from a life of depen-
dence toa life of indeper.-
dence have outgrown the
confines of its 4,500 sq. ft.
Esplanade locale.

What began as a service
that helped approximately
500 people per year is now
helping 1,000 people per
month.

The Fosters envision a
building more than twice the
size of their current facility to
accommodate those
demands. Add to that
10,000-square-foot main
building, another 5,000
square feet to provide tempo-
rary shelter for the North
Shore’s homeless, who num-
ber around 70 at any given
time.

But focations for what the
Harvest aceds at the price it
can afford are few, especially
in the area that makes most
use of its services: North
Vancouver City’s Lower
Lonsdale.

With a paid staff of six and
a volunteer pool of 95, the
Harvest’s community-gener-
ated siinval operating budget

SON

& blinds Itd.

i veww.sidrapesandblinds.com
Custom Rods, Upholstery & Bed:preads
{Atk abour aur Seniors Discount)
For Free Estimate call
$22-4975 or 987-2966
Drapery Labuur $13.50 per panel fined.

iow Low Pricis

( IaLORMOTIV
| COLLISION SPECIALISTS

for Fereign & Domestic

NORTH SHORE’S
HIGHEST VOLUME
ALL MAKE
1.¢.B.¢. VENDOR

* Quality Workmanship —_

© Trustworthy Service © 1.C.B.C. Vendor
¢ BCAA. Approved ¢

_
Accredited Callision Repairs

shop

=
Gea

Y The Home of the Lifetime

of just under $180,000
doesn’t allow much for rent.

tr currently pays the city
$1,386 per month — more
than its original $1,050 rent,
but less than the $1,886 the
city was Erving to squeeze
from the Esplanade Harvest
after co-tenant True North
Clothing Co, moved out of
the building in 1995.

As of May 1, the Harvest
Project will need an initial
$500,000 to secure a site and
finaize plans for a new home.
It will then need an estimated
$3 million over the next
three years to finance the
purchase of that property and
to build a new Harvest.

That's where the Harvest
theory of communities help-
ing themselves comes into
play.

Right now there’s no new
facility or site on the
Harvest’s radar screen. Hopes
that the old flea market
Luilding on east Esplanade
would be an option were
recently dashed.

So what the Harvest needs
right now is community assis-
tance on a host of fronts. Key
among those: ideas —
options for relocation, for
example — resources of ail
kinds, and funds.

The Harvest Project is not
another welfare/poverty sink-
hole.

It’s a repair home for bro-
ken human spirits, a cultiva-
tor of hope, a made-in-
North-Shore solution whose
philosophies deserve cultiva-
tion so that other communi-
ties might reap similar har-
vests.

The promoter of commu-
nity self-help needs some
community help of its own.

Samosa

$3.95

i
L

Sunday, February 27, 2000 — Nerth Shore News — 7

BD)

Oll, Lube & Filter
21 pt. Safety check, 15 minu

tes - FAST!

Grow

better place for your efforts.
—rrenshawlusnews.com

includes up tu 5 litres of 1Ow30 Quakerstate i

13G2 Marine Drive 930-9715
Mon-Sat 8 O0arn-6:00pm, Sun. 3:00am-5:00pm, Expires Max. ~/2000 Jj

PS ee ee eee se

Computer Problems?

Complimentary 1/2 hr. training with mention of this ad!

Consulting © Set-up ¢ Training « Installation © Web Design
Software Training trom $35.00

David C. Williams
ef Com ‘Connections °.

cle

4

@ Home Computer Installation
www.setypnow.cam ;

Daryl E. Percy

and Training:
= 987-9703 ::

Len em care cess ee cee ne So oes ce na oe es emt ee ee

GRANDE

Dental Centre
Dr. Farshid S. Shahbazi

Family Dentist

announces their new hours

open Saturdays by appointment
NEW & EMERGENCY PATIENTS WELCOME

208-168 East 13th Street, North Vancouver,
acrou from Lions Gate Hospital Emergency
Mon, Wed, Fri 8am-5pm

Tucs.Thurs 12pm-8pm

Dal sou; ;
$32

Op

‘ Meat dish
$9.95»

_ “Alu, cauliflower or.

‘plain yarantha. - ~. .
P ? ; $9.95:
Speciality Rice
Vegetable biryani.

Grand Op
Sp

Jecial

2 tor 1

Dinner Entrees

(Valld only until March Sth - not valld wit

ice (Biryani)

al

-~®uarantee >

Also Mechanical Division. ___ aiternotive transportation arranged.’

ie is We ofpmakes gifenord vax ING .& ESTIMATES *
COWSULTATION

TAYLORMOTIVE SERVICE 27D.
174 Pemborton Ave., North Van TAR a Pore 985-7455
- 4 tvaet meee er

rr

eH eRer eee RTT HAT EET Te ee eT
See meeee ed oseosatatretetinvs