Out of the Cold
The 19th season of the Beth Sholom/Beth Tzedec Out of the Cold Shelter will operate on Tuesday nights from January 1, 2019 through March 19, 2019. We provide a hot meal, clothing, entertainment, an art program and a mindfulness group for 175 of Toronto’s homeless and needy. We also offer sleeping accommodations for 60 overnight guests, a hot breakfast, bagged lunch and a subway token for everyone each week.
Our Shelter has succeeded in creating a warm environment for our guests in more ways than one. We are known for our friendly and caring volunteers, the fact that we serve our guests dinner, (rather than having them line up), on white tablecloths, and have live musical entertainment while they enjoy their meal.
The distribution of warm clothing is one of the most essential services we provide to our guests. We greatly appreciate your clothing donations. Please note that we only accept the following items, and they must be in adult sizes and in new or nearly new condition: down coats, ski jackets, parkas, snow pants, sweaters, hoodies, sweatshirts, sweat pants, blue jeans, corduroy pants, winter boots, hiking boots and running shoes. Clothing can be dropped off at Beth Sholom Synagogue, and placed in the bins and boxes located in the entrance of the Synagogue.
Our art program, The Art Circle, has empowered many of those who use our services. Our guests work on their paintings and drawings for two hours every Tuesday night after dinner, under the guidance of our experienced volunteer staff. At the end of the season we present Basking in their Light, the Out of the Cold Art Sale and Fundraiser that showcase’s our artists’ works. For many of the artists it is the highlight of their year. The 2018 Art Sale set records for the numbers of attendees, (400), and our artists received $5,700 from the sale of their paintings.
We continue to search for ways to improve the quality of life of our guests. TWe have forged partnerships with the Toronto Branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association and The Centre for Mindfulness Studies which has brought their support staff to our Shelter.
The heart of our Shelter is our volunteers, without whom we could not operate.
If you would like to volunteer please click here.
Please see below for changes to our volunteer registration.
If you have questions related to volunteering please contact us at: volunteer.ootcbsbt@gmail.com
If you have questions please contact us at: ootcbsbt@gmail.com
We look forward to volunteering with you,
Rafi Aaron and Maureen Tanz
Co-chairs Beth Sholom/Beth Tzedec Out of the Cold