Souls Harbour’s Cape Breton shelter sees uptick in clients, volunteers

Since Souls Harbour Rescue Mission opened its first-ever location in Cape Breton on Feb. 26, the community has shown plenty of support for the new drop-in center in Sydney Mines, N.S.

"One-hundred-and-fifty volunteers (have) signed up from Cape Breton, (they) overwhelmed Halifax's database,” said Alana MacLellan, drop-in manager for Souls Harbour Sydney Mines.

Recently, staff at the Sydney Mines shelter received a couple of big donations.

Philthy Philly’s, a Sydney restaurant, dropped off a large amount of surplus ground beef but Souls Harbour didn't have a deep freezer to put it in.

Moments later, another truck pulled up to the building.

"The timing could not have been more perfect, because Schwartz and their freezer was here at the exact same time their ground beef arrived,” MacLellan said. “So we were able to take our ground beef and put it in our brand new freezer."

"They're not up to the numbers they were initially looking at, but those numbers are growing every day,” said Cape Breton Regional Municipality Councillor Gordon MacDonald, whose district includes the new Souls Harbour location.

Souls Harbour estimates they are serving 25-to-30 people a day in Sydney Mines.

That’s not nearly as many as the 200 per day their shelter sees in Halifax, but MacDonald says he has seen the need in his community first-hand.

"People call every single day, regarding those kinds of issues, 'I'm hungry, I've got no oil in my tank, where am I going to get the next food for my kids?' Or even a place to stay,” MacDonald said.

While the unexpected gifting of the ground beef - and the freezer to put it in - was no doubt a recent highlight, it was far from the only donation in the more than two months since opening day.

"Every single day, we have received a donation - and we don't know where the donation is going to come from,” MacLellan said.

On Monday, a new 'free mart' space will be opening at the Sydney Mines Souls Harbour shelter, offering clothing and personal items to anyone who needs them.

"We know that there are more than 600 families living on less than $22,000 a year, and of those a portion living on less than $11,000 a year,” MacLellan said.

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