Canucks Sports and Entertainment and BCLC Partner for Special Community Experience for Downtown Eastside

Rogers Arena recently transformed into a massive dining room as a place of connection, warmth, and community for nearly 1,000 individuals from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside for an event called Community Connect: Nourish the Neighbourhood.

Canucks Sports and Entertainment (CSE) and British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) hosted a unique dining experience designed to positively impact our community through the power of a nourishing meal, good conversation and connection to local, supportive resources.

Over 200 volunteers from CSE and BCLC dedicated their time to serving meals and connecting with guests throughout the event. Among the special guests were Canucks alumni that included Stan Smyl, Darcy Rota, and Chris Higgins among others and Vancouver Warriors defenceman Brett Mydske, who took photos and signed autographs, adding a personal touch to the evening.

CSE Vice President of Community Relations, Alex Oxenham and BCLC’s Director of Social Purpose, Partnerships, and Engagement, Lara Gerrits both agreed it was a great opportunity to come together to create stronger connections within the community.

“It’s important because we live and work in this community where food security is an issue, and there are so many deserving people who need a hot meal. We have the space and the facility to do something like this, and when it comes together with one of our amazing partners, like BCLC, and we can help provide a delicious meal as well as create positive moments in people's lives – connections with family, friends, and community – that is a very powerful opportunity,” Oxenham said.

For BCLC, the initiative aligned with their ongoing commitment to social purpose and making a meaningful impact.

“This was a great opportunity for us to come together, connect with our neighbours from the Downtown Eastside through a nourishing meal, and also to engage our employees in an experience of giving back,” Gerrits said. “I know that community connection is also something that the Canucks strongly believe in.”

The guests were brought together through the help of A Better Life Foundation, a charity that provides meals to marginalized communities, as well as opportunities for training and employment.

Producing over 2,000 meals daily for individuals living in single-room occupancies (SROs), shelters, and other community spaces, the foundation has served over five million meals to date. Executive Director Ash MacLeod highlighted how events like this go beyond food.

“Lots of people here are coming for the food, but more than that, they come to hang out and be a part of a positive social experience,” MacLeod said.

“Speaking from the perspective of the Downtown Eastside there are so few opportunities, third spaces, where people can go and just do normal things. When an opportunity like this presents itself, people are so enthused and so happy to participate on this level where it's part of a civic and municipal cultural icon.”

For attendees like Dino, coming to an event like this is a reprieve and a moment for reflection. He has been attending events through invitation from A Better Life Foundation for the past three years and says eating on center ice made this event at Rogers Arena a special occasion.

“The community that we are in is really struggling right now, and what happens for that hour and a half when we're sharing a meal, it brings the community together. We all go together, we all have good food, good laughs and we get to chat with the people that are volunteering, which is amazing,” Dino said.

Growing up a Canucks fan, Dino loved Stan Smyl because he was a smaller, scrappy player with a lot of heart, and he was thrilled to see Smyl in attendance.

“It's nostalgic and something that brings me back. We’ve got Stan Smyl walking around, Darcy Rota, we’ve got them all. I watched them as a kid with my dad, who was an avid fan; I remember growing up to these guys. So, to be sitting here, having this dinner with the community is such a good feeling,” Dino said.

Chef Bartley, CSE’s Executive Chef, crafted a comforting and nutritious three-course meal featuring cream of tomato soup, a fresh green salad, Salisbury steak royale with sides – which was a play on traditional meatloaf – and apple crisp for dessert.

He designed a menu that would appeal to most people, and would be comforting on a cold, rainy night as his philosophy on food is that it’s about emotional connection.

“Food touches a person’s soul; it creates an emotional thunderbolt that rivets through everyone, and it’s been doing it since the beginning of time. Gathering around a table, eating food, sharing life stories, and feeling community, it’s important for everyone’s mental health whether you’re the one providing the service or you’re the one receiving it,” Bartley said.

As the evening drew to a close, the impact of the event was evident in the smiles and excitement, and conversations that filled the arena.

Gerrits spent time speaking with the attendees and she said it was very clear that this event goes much further than providing a great meal and dining experience.

“Yes, we are providing a nourishing meal, but it's really about the environment that we're creating. Through connections and bringing people together, we're really helping foster that feeling of community. Bringing people together is such a simple and yet incredibly impactful thing. It's making a big difference in people's lives today,” Gerrits shared.

Oxenham echoed those sentiments, reflecting on the power of community.

“To see and to experience their reaction, or their response to the service, the incredible food that our culinary team puts together and see them having a memory and a moment with their family and their community means everything to all of us,” she said.

Through the event, CSE and BCLC reaffirmed their commitment to making a meaningful impact, proving a simple act of kindness goes a long way in bringing the community together.