North Van church reaches out to the vulnerable with Coffee Time

The North Shore Alliance Church (NSAC) in North Vancouver is taking its Coffee Time outreach program to the streets of North Vancouver to blunt the impact of social distancing on some of the city’s most vulnerable residents.

For more than a decade, Coffee Time has provided baked goods, hot drinks, music, a Bible message, Christian fellowship and $10 grocery cards to about a hundred people each Wednesday afternoon.

That was the case until measures intended to slow the spread of the deadly Covid-19 coronavirus forced the temporary suspension of the weekly gathering in mid- March.

But it would take more than a pandemic to stop Coffee Time co-founder Pastor Dave Sattler and his team of 25 volunteers from serving their clients.

“We quickly identified the 38 most vulnerable people among our 100 Coffee Time regulars – the ones who live alone, are homeless or who may have physical or mental health challenges – and we tried to contact them.”

The idea is to both maintain and enhance ties with the 38 during the Covid-19 crisis by shopping and delivering groceries to them.

“We’re also reaching out to prevent the vulnerable from going to the grocery store and potentially exposing themselves, or others, to the Covid-19 virus,” Sattler said.

Coffee Time volunteers are also seizing the opportunity to offer prayers to clients while delivering essentials such as milk, eggs, bread, vegetables and fruit. So far, the reaction of Coffee Time regulars during this time of universal distress has been more than gratifying, Sattler said.

Sattler and his volunteers are already considering recording or livestreaming Coffee Time meetings to further cement their relationships with their community.