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Serious topic diminished by puff-piece reporting

Sometimes a serious topic can be done a disservice by single perspective, single point-of-view reporting. Advocacy reporting that turns away from journalistic principles results in a soft, superficial take on an important issue that deseves to be more than a light lifestyle section feature. This piece should have been a full news story examination in the full sense of the term.

One example is this story: Soup kitchen still fuels community 25 years later from the Sept. 21, 2008 London Free Press shown here with my response to the writer below:

POVERTY: The need for the centre is greater than ever Soup kitchen still fuels community 25 years later

By Kelly Pedro

It’s 9:30 a.m. and at least 15 people are lining up on Dundas Street waiting for breakfast.

Inside, volunteers at St. Joseph’s Hospitality Centre are packing cherries into small resealable plastic bags, putting peanut butter and jam in small containers and lining up bowls of cereal.

For 25 years the soup kitchen on Dundas near Lyle Street has fed people in need of breakfast or lunch.

“We take great pride in putting a meal out there that is as good as any,” says Bill Payne, co-ordinator of the centre run and financed by the Sisters of St. Joseph. “We wouldn’t have existed if it weren’t for the Sisters,” says Payne, who has been at the centre 14 years.

A typical breakfast? French toast and sausage with coffee. Lunch? Shepherd’s pie and fruit.

The centre has served about 1.5 million meals, thanks to the Sisters, who opened it in 1983 as a temporary measure because of high unemployment at the time.

Twenty-five years later, the soup kitchen is more needed than ever.

The number of people using the centre has increased, Payne says. The soup kitchen used to get about 70 people for breakfast. It now serves 130 for breakfast alone and more than 300 meals daily.

“It’s tough out there for a lot of people but there’s also a lot to be thankful for,” says Payne, adding the centre wouldn’t exist without help from the Sisters, donors and volunteers.

The centre has 120 volunteers, including 80-year-old Jean Ward, who has helped at the soup kitchen since its early days.

Ward spends Friday mornings talking and laughing with other volunteers and building relationships with the people who come in for a hot meal.

“You get to know the clients and it’s nice to interact with them,” says Ward, who has a history of volunteerism and spent 35 years donating her time to the Children’s Aid Society of London and Middlesex.

While the centre has helped those in need, it has also received a helping hand.

In 2005, when an electrical fire caused $100,000 damage, leaving the centre unable to serve food, the soup kitchen received so many offers of help the staff was overwhelmed.

— — —

BY THE NUMBERS

1.5 million:

300: Number of meals served daily

120: Number of volunteers

1983: Year the centre opened

Here are my comments emailed to London Free Press reporter Kelly Pedro in reponse to her story and my suggestions for improvements:

Further to your soup kitchen story (London Free Press Sunday, Sept.21. 2008): While your piece presents an interesting snapshot of their facility and services, little attempt was made to gather comments from others who may not have had such a positive turn on the place. Your article should have sought opinion from: East London residents and neighbours; city planning officials and Board of Control members; area business people; directors of Old East London revitalization groups; the Palace theater; the TD/Canada Trust branch and others who can point to the downfall of the East London Business district directly as a consequence of establishing a soup kitchen entity in such a prominent and incongruous location.

Since it opened its doors the soup kitchen has contributed to the dereliction and blighting of the neighborhood, and a direct increase in crime.

Sure, some might say that these are NIMBY comments (Not in My Back Yard) or that one brings services to the down-and-out where they can be found, but I am sure those in need can find the services no matter what corner of the city or city limits they would be located. How curious that the Sister’s didn’t open up in some of London’s tonier neighborhoods. Or heaven forbid, next to the Mount in North London and their nicely refurbished digs.

East London is in dire need of re-development and revitalization. Business districts are vital to a city and should not be destroyed by ill-conceived and misplaced priorities. Social services such as soup kitchens and methadone clinics along the main business street drive away investment and only encourage further dereliction of an area. Carefully situating such facilities so as to not detract from a best-face-forward to the world is the only way to serve all the residents of London, including the poor, and unemployed.

On this point of redevelopment: What will happen to the facility in your article if the city gives the go-ahead on the massive twin-tower 22-story commercial/residential development (by Sterling companies) proposed for that location?

October 12, 2008 at 4:51 pm Leave a comment