Minutes earlier, 519 Pursuit’s Michelle Boissonneault and Patty O’Neill had finished handing lunches to homeless campers at Watson Street Park.
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“We ran out of meals. We had to turn people away today,” Boissonneault said, as she and O’Neill posed for a photograph.
That’s the level of need hundreds of Londoners are facing as winter approaches, and 519 Pursuit starts an annual plea for community support.
The grassroots organization helps out at the city’s homeless depots and travels all year to encampments throughout the city.
Each fall for the past six years, the group has launched the 519Pledge, aimed at collecting socks for homeless Londoners.
“It’s something that people truly don’t take into account. We just reach into our drawer and we pull out of a pair of socks,” Boissonneault said Wednesday.
But socks are life-savers when you don’t have a warm, dry home.
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“Just being able to have a dry, warm pair of socks goes a long way for those who are always on their feet,” Boissonneault said. “It’s super helpful to regulate body temperature and prevent frostbite and infections.”
519 Pursuit is setting this year’s target at 100,000 pairs, although last year’s effort raised about 140,000, she said.
“They get donated to our friends on the street and they get donated to many local services and shelter.”
As the fall sock drive begins, concern is building within homeless encampments about the coming winter, Boissonneault said.
“It’s weighing on people’s minds,” she said. “Obviously, our friends know winter is coming and we’ve been having conversations about how we can support people and whether we can get people indoors. The deposits are still going and we’re still doing our best.”
The pledge campaign runs until Nov. 15.
During the past six years, it has collected more than 428,000 pairs of socks that have been handed out to people directly and to more than 80 community organizations and shelters from London to Toronto, 519Pursuit says.
Anyone wishing to pledge socks, as an individual or part of a team, can visit 519Pursuit.ca/pledge.
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