The centre’s opening comes amid a period of massive population growth and immigration to Calgary and across Alberta, along with cost-of-living challenges that have stressed the city’s poverty-reduction supports such as food banks.
A faith-based centre aiming to help fight poverty, particularly among newcomers to Calgary, opened Saturday.
Centre for the City, a facility that’s part of Centre Street Church (CSC), is partnering with eight organizations to provide skills training, community building and play structures for families in Calgary.
The centre’s opening comes amid a period of massive population growth and immigration to Calgary and across Alberta, along with cost-of-living challenges that have stressed the city’s poverty-reduction supports such as food banks.
“If you’re in poverty, if you’re a new Canadian, if you’re a refugee, if you’re someone that’s wondering if there’s a place of belonging, it’s here,” said Steve Griffin, pastor and Centre of the City Lead.
The centre is described as “the first of its kind” in Canada among faith communities by providing clothes, food, classes, jobs training and a place to practice faith. CSC, a 120,000 square-foot campus, is part of the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada.
Every month, the centre distributes an average of 610 boxed lunches and 300 food hampers, and fields 544 people for clothing support, 1,333 to the Well Cafe for food and 336 visits from new Canadians who attend 45-60 classes each month. It is the city’s second-largest depot behind Calgary Food Bank.
The centre has hit capacity for the number of newcomers it can welcome and has an approximately 50-person waitlist, Griffin said. “We’re considering ways in which we can provide more space and opportunity to meet those needs,” he said.
The vision behind the new centre was to build a bridge between the church, concerned Calgarians and those struggling to meet ends, Griffin told a crowd on Saturday.
The Centre has partners with the Calgary Food Bank, HerVictory, Teen Challenge, Common Ground Foundation, Salvation Army, The Mustard Seed, Mainsprings, Freedom 8848 and Hope Mission. It will use 11,077 square feet of purpose-built space.
Calgary’s population grew a staggering six per cent in 2023, bringing the city past the 1.6-million mark. Since 2019, which has seen major inflation pressures hit consumers, the Calgary Food Bank has gone from distributing roughly 300 emergency food hampers a day to about 700 daily.
The space is part of CSC’s expansion of its central campus, which cost $30.8 million.
The centre had to raise $1.7 million to finish paying for construction. Nearly $24 million was raised by the congregation over six years to pay for “a variety of missional projects” around the world.
— With files from Scott Strasser
