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Anybody Eats Here Free

By January 2, 2020February 27th, 2024No Comments

This story is from a Maclean’s article from 1955.

“Anyone—rich or poor, saint or sinner—may walk into the mission and be given a meal without question. Some days workers have noticed well dressed men at the tables who, they presume, are there for a lark or to win a bet. Once a prosperous looking man stopped at the mission office, told Zeidman how much he had enjoyed his meal and handed him a twenty-dollar donation.”

It is entirely on these donations that the mission depends to finance its work.

“They pour in in the form of cash, food or used clothing from estates, church groups, service clubs, businessmen, wealthy widows, people who hear about the mission and even those who have been helped by it. Zeidman’s gifts have ranged from beds to tuxedos and leftover birthday cake to hams that have rolled off delivery trucks and been brought to the mission by police.”

“Because he must rely on unsolicited donations, there are times when Zeidman literally doesn’t know where the next meal is coming from. One winter the mission had no desserts. The director, who insists that the men have balanced meals, priced manufactured desserts and found them too expensive for the mission’s pockets. He sat back, trusting that something would happen. It did.”

A Toronto department store sent him five thousand packages of Christmas puddings.

“Another time, when the mission needed cups, Zeidman put off buying them in spite of his wife’s insistence. Finally, when no more meals could be served without them, he consented to shop around, using what little money he had. As he stepped out the mission door, a truck pulled up and unloaded two hundred cups from an anonymous donor.”

It is the many stories of faith like these ones that have happened over the years that have upheld Morris and Annie Zeidman’s trust in God that as long He provided the means, they would keep serving those in need.

You can share a gift to provide food, clothing and shelter for our hungry and hurting neighbours.

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