Group giving out food, essentials, art supplies to Sudbury's homeless community

Once a week, on Tuesdays, Memorial Park in downtown Sudbury is briefly transformed. 

A table set up by Myths and Mirrors Community Arts staff welcomes the city's homeless community, offering a hot meal, and an assortment of items — from first aid kits and water bottles, to hand decorated journals, candles and art supplies. 

"People deserve nice things, and that's what we really believe in," said Abbey Jackson, one of the organizers.

The weekly redistribution, as the group calls it, is a reinvention of a Myths and Mirrors program Jackson co-founded in 2019, called Sudbury Street Arts. It offered a drop-in space for people living in poverty, to warm up, use Wi-Fi, and have a hot meal — and make art together. 

People who are living outside … [were] denied a dignified experience of the pandemic.— Abbey Jackson, Sudbury Street Arts co-founder

Like many programs, it was put on hold because of the pandemic. 

"We were kind of battling with that because we felt like we had already made the commitment to this community," said Cora-Rae Silk, the artistic director with Myths and Mirrors. 

So last month, Silk and Jackson decided to continue the program, in a new setting, hoping to meet people's immediate needs, as well offer small comforts and opportunity for creativity.  

Pandemic amplified challenges 

The need for programs like Sudbury Street Arts is greater than ever, Jackson says. She herself was previously homeless in Toronto, and knows first hand how difficult it is to get by day-to-day. She says those challenges have been amplified as many services were scaled back, or simply not available, during the pandemic.  

"People who are living outside and living in extreme poverty were in a lot of ways denied a dignified experience of the pandemic," Jackson said. 

"People are put in this position where they have to grovel, they have to beg. It's humiliating just to use a bathroom, find a place to stay and eat a meal."

With Sudbury Street Arts, Jackson says there are "no expectations, no conditions." 

Adam McMillan has been homeless for eight months. He agrees the pandemic has presented extra challenges.

"When the rich people feel the pinch and the normal people are really struggling, the homeless people really take the brunt of it," McMillan said. 

'Beautiful things can happen'

On Tuesday afternoon, McMillan grabbed lunch — a bowl of chili and a muffin — along with some other items to put in his backpack, including pencils and a small green notebook. He says he plans to draw, and write songs. 

Organizers hope many, like McMillan, will find moments for creativity.

"We want people to not only be safe and be as comfortable as they can out here, we also want them to be able to do things that they enjoy," Jackson said. 

Jackson says she knows many talented artists within Sudbury's homeless community, but she says the opportunity to put those talents to use if often out of reach, as people focus on the "full time job" of survival. 

"We know that if we can provide the support and the means, even the materials to make art to people who can't afford them, then some beautiful things can happen."