Each week, a Guelph couple ventures out into the snow to help their friends in the forest living in encampments, dropping off food and other needed supplies.
It started just over a year ago, when Melissa Saunders and her husband Darren Tucker began taking frequent walks in the woods. Shocked by the number of unhoused people living in tents tucked behind the trees, they were compelled to act.
But they didn't want to just make assumptions about what people needed, so they started by walking up to encampments and talking to the people living there, then posting a wish list on Guelph social media channels of items to be donated.
People would bring the items to their house, and Tucker and Saunders would deliver them to encampments themselves.
A year later, the people living in the forest have become their friends.
Saunders and Tucker partnered with The Seed shortly after, accordingly naming their endeavour Friends in the Forest.
“So now, in partnership with The Seed and the generous local Guelphites out there, we’ve been able to deliver groceries and other much needed items to people on a weekly basis. We haven’t missed a week,” Saunders said.
Items range from hygiene products to sleeping bags, heat sources, cots and tents. They typically help between 20 to 30 people spread across three or four encampments, though that number changes regularly because people move or get housed.
“A lot of them are my age. Some of them, we went to high school together, or they were at a rival high school at the same time. They’re just our fellow Guelphites,” she said.
One woman they helped last winter was a childhood friend of Tucker’s from Newfoundland.
“She moved to Ontario and just has had a bad run of luck,” she said, adding the woman has since been housed.
“They're so kind and appreciative of everything that we try to do for them. I haven't had a negative interaction, and I have no intention of stopping.”
Saunders said she thinks the experience has been such a positive one, in part, because of their approach.
When they go up to the encampments, they will introduce themselves and politely state their intentions (to drop off food, for instance), telling people they don’t have to come out of their tents if they don’t want to.
“I know some people go up and maybe it’s a bit too aggressive,” she said. “Or often there’s a front entry to the area, so you kind of treat that as their front door, and don’t go past unless you’re invited.
“I’ve heard so many stories from these people where they’re experiencing verbal abuse or violence … so they’re scared when somebody comes to their space.”
She noted if anyone wants to pick up the cause themselves, to do so respectfully.
“State your intentions, your name, be consistent, and don’t just dump garbage and make assumptions that you’re helping,” she said. “There was one man who had somebody drop off a queen size mattress at his tent, and he was like, ‘what am I going to do with this? I can’t take this anywhere.’”
Not long after he was told to leave because his encampment was making too much of a mess, though Saunders said besides the mattress he was “very clean and organized and tried to be as hidden from the public eye as possible.”
Still, she believes Guelph needs more people going out and doing this kind of work.
Saunders works for Lucky Iron Fish, a social business enterprise that allows employees an allotted amount of volunteer hours on company time. That opportunity led to her doing this work with her husband, and she encourages more companies to do the same for their employees.
“I work full-time, and there’s a lot of good that you can do, even just on your lunch hour. Save your take out containers and fill them with leftovers to share, dropping off food or personal items at places like Grace Gardens, filling up those neighbourhood pantries,” she said. “Small acts of kindness — like acknowledging their presence, offering a meal, or volunteering — can make a big difference in someone's life.
“We all have to do better. It doesn’t have to be through a big organization, if that’s intimidating. You can just do things on your own. If you’ve got leftovers from your dinner that nobody else wants to have, put it in a takeout container. You won’t have to walk very far out your door to find somebody who would really appreciate that meal.”