What does it mean to be homeless?

It’s a question asked by one of my neighbours as we were chatting at the Long Table Feast on August 18th.

To be homeless, he mused, was to be without family. It was to live – whether housed or not – without people who love and care for you.

Home is much more than a house. It’s the feeling of living in a place where you are known and loved. It also includes knowing and loving others around you. In that way, I think a lot of us are home-less.

Our job as neighbours is to make our collection of dwellings feel a lot more like home by building relationships and getting to know one another. There is no better way to do this than over a meal, which is why the Boyle Street Community League was so excited about the Long Table Feast on August 18th.

Hosted by the Downtown Farmers Market in partnership with the Chinese Benevolent Association and the Boyle Street Community League, the Long Table Feast was a community meal accessible to all in our neighbourhood in celebration of Alberta Local Food Week. It was an expression of the incredible diversity and vibrancy that we all know exists in our neighbourhood. And the food was really, really good!

We are grateful to the many community groups in our neighbourhood that bring us together. Some, like the Chinese Benevolent Association, have been doing that in Boyle Street for decades. Others, like the Downtown Farmers Market, have just started with the new Sunday Market outside the old Army and Navy building on 97 Street and 103 Avenue. All make Boyle Street feel more like home.

Other opportunities for us to get together as neighbours were coming up at the time of my writing this. On September 8th at 1 p.m., the Downtown Farmers Market hosted the Mid-Autumn Festival and on September 14th, the street that won the Chalk Your Block competition hosted a block party that everyone was welcome to attend. We’ll have more about those events in the next issue of the paper.

Go to the Boyle Street Community League Facebook Page or www.boylestreet.community for all upcoming opportunities to get to know more neighbours.

Together, we can make Boyle Street feel more like home for all of us.

Jordan is the President of the Boyle Street Community League.