At 10:40 a.m. every weekday the lock on the glass double doors at Hope Chapel click open and it takes less than a minute for clumps of students to march through, swooping by a table to grab a hot chocolate that's been poured and lidded, then joining a line for a hot dog or snack.
Pastor Jane Peck and a team of volunteers give out 550 hot dogs to more than 300 high school students every Wednesday, and they give out snacks and hot chocolate on the other days of the week to nearly the same number of kids.
It's a simple service that's caught on over the last couple of years, and at its centre is a whole lot of heart and hard work.
Peck is at the church five days a week, not just overseeing the delivery of the lunch and snack program, but elbow-deep in a cleaning bucket and all smiles for the kids who come through the door, all of whom get directions in Peck’s loud but kind voice to get in a line for hot dogs.
If a table is starting to look sparse, Peck will jump into the assembly line to pour hot chocolate, or she’ll bring out another foil pan full of hot dogs ready to serve.
“I get a vacation when the kids do,” said Peck, who is mother to one adult child, and a former educator.
Even when she’s not at church, she’s probably baking cookies or sewing, crocheting, or knitting something warm to give away.
She works to keep the program afloat, knowing hundreds of kids depend on her, and more who will come to rely on lunch at Hope Chapel.
Wednesdays are the biggest production with the most volunteers, including some from Living Water Resort, Const. Dineen, local youth pastors, area residents and students who are getting their volunteer hours. About a dozen people help serve about 550 hot dogs, hot chocolate and whatever else is on the menu.
“We could use some more volunteers,” said Peck. Someone to keep the community cupboard open, for example, would mean access for students to clothing, hygiene and food items if they need anything at home.
Without the constraints of a limited budget, Peck would add a drop-in shelter for homeless people, and she would expand the community cupboard and support for the mobile soup kitchen, which uses space in the chapel basement regularly.
But there are constraints.
The program gets the support of $10,000 a year from Living Water Resort for the hot dog lunch, but the costs are about double that for the Wednesday offering.
Then there’s the other four days a week when Peck and her volunteers serve hot chocolate, iced tea, and cookies.
The chapel is burning through its savings, and Peck hopes there will be more financial support from the community in the future.
“Almost everyone knows a kid who has been here,” said Peck, noting the church also has charitable status and can give tax receipts.
Peck keeps a freezer stocked with microwave meals and has told some students to help themselves when they need it.
“We have identified a couple of students that really need it, but they keep that stuff close, they don’t want to share it,” said Peck. Those students know they can disappear from a crowd and go to the kitchenette to heat up a meal when they want it.
“I’d love it if there was a way to be able to identify more students who are in that situation, I want to give them more than a cookie,” said Peck.
Peck does the work every week of making hot chocolate, hauling it out of the kitchen and into the foyer, organizing volunteers, serving food or drink where she’s needed, and gently correcting any youth who overstep boundaries in the building, she has also attracted a diverse group of people who have latched onto her vision.
Not only is it an inter-church effort, with support from other churches and denominations in Collingwood, Ontario Provincial Police Const. Christine Dineen is a regular face at Hope Chapel, serving hot dogs and conversing with the teens who stop by on their lunch hour.
Dineen is the local school resource officer, but hasn’t been allowed in the Collingwood high schools since the fall of 2022 when the board ended its work with OPP in classes and in the hallways.
“We had to become kind of creative,” said Dineen. “I have built a lot of relationships with students and I didn’t want to see those die.”
She asked Peck for help and was invited to come on Wednesdays. Peck also gave Dineen office space if she needed it.
“I think it’s very important that we have positive relationships with kids, because if they only ever see us when they’re in trouble … that’s just a negative experience over and over again,” said Dineen. “I serve them hot dogs and they chat with me, even those kids that I’ve had to speak to in the past or who have been in trouble … they still want to talk.”
During the lunch hour, Dineen checks in with a group of girls who are preparing for a craft show and getting excited about a Taylor Swift concert. They give her an update on their work and school.
“The kids love coming here, they love Jane,” said Dineen. “There’s food, there’s clothes, it’s just a safe place for them.”
She said kids have reached out to her to ask for help after they met and talked to her at Hope Chapel. It’s something Dineen said doesn’t happen if there’s no opportunity to connect with kids first.
While it doesn’t completely fill the gap left by losing access to the 1,600 kids who attend Collingwood Collegiate and the hundreds more at Our Lady of the Bay Catholic High School, Dineen said being able to visit Hope Chapel at lunch does help.
“I think there would be a lot of kids very hurt if this program was gone,” said Dineen. “There’s a lot of kids that need it, believe it or not.”
Hayden Zirk, Eli Stouffer, and Matthew Abaza, all in Grade 10, with Caleb Stouffer, Grade 9, come to Hope Chapel for lunch every day.
Zirk said the available space, food, and good company has made a “solid difference,” in their lives.
“They’re good people, really nice,” said Zirk. “The community should donate if they can.”
Kylie Walker, a Grade 11 student, has been coming to Hope Chapel for the lunch hour since her second semester of Grade 9 with a group of eight to ten other students every day.
“I don’t know what I’d do without it,” said Walker. “I couldn’t find a lot of places to be … the school is overcrowded.”
Walker said all the volunteers at the Chapel are welcoming and kind, and she was able to get some volunteer hours helping on her lunch hours.
“Jane is super sweet, and lovely,” said Walker. “She always asks how my day is going.”
Among the team of very nice volunteers is Peck’s right hand and member of the Hope Chapel congregation Holly Whetham. Whetham is at the church three days a week, starting at 8 a.m. on Wednesdays and running the snack station where students can buy instant noodles for 75 cents.
“When I was growing up, we were taught to volunteer and give back … it was instilled in me to give back,” said the 64-year-old retiree.
She now receives a stipend for her help at the chapel too, since she’s a regular server.
“This is a way to give a hand up,” said Whetham. “It’s a struggle out there for people.”
Over two years of volunteering, Whetham has developed a rapport with the students who come in regularly, and watched the program grow.
“I’ve seen it blossom,” she said. “It makes me feel good that I’m at least helping the future, laying the groundwork, and hopefully it filters down and they’ll volunteer too.”
She was joined last month by Kelly Cescon, who was volunteering for the first time at Hope Chapel as a member of the Living Water staff. The local resort commits two or three volunteers from its employee base each week.
“It’s something different. I haven’t really had time to volunteer with two little kids and I’m also a real estate agent,” said Cescon. “I had no idea they did this until they were telling us at work that we could volunteer, so it’s amazing that they have this for the kids.”
Whetham is glad to hear Cescon and others are learning about the program and the need for volunteers.
“I hope people become more aware of how important it is to volunteer,” said Whetham. “Just taking that step out of your own world.”
Another long-standing volunteer, Jason McGill, the youth pastor at Journey Community Church in Collingwood, worked with Peck to start opening Hope Chapel to kids years ago to give them a spot to warm up while waiting for the bus. Volunteers would take turns serving the kids hot chocolate.
“It kind of grew into something more,” said McGill. “I really love that this place is called Hope Chapel, because that’s really the purpose to me, I want to show kids that there’s hope in life … and there can be hope everyday.”
With Peck in the lead, McGill and others have rallied around her ideas and efforts. McGill said it’s a good cause, but he also likes that it’s an honest and pure goal.
“The heart behind it, is really for our community,” said McGill. “If you talk to Jane, you get the sense really quick that there’s not a motive to try to make her name great or make this building into something great. It’s really just trying to help people in a place of hope.”
Zac Fulton, the associate pastor at Clearview Community Church Wasaga Beach location is a regular helper at Hope Chapel on Wednesdays for the last two years, and he has enjoyed getting to know the youth and stay connected with them.
“It’s important just to have a space outside of school that is safe,” said Fulton.
He noted the program is a discreet way of feeding kids who might otherwise go hungry that day, and he’s glad there’s at least one lunch a week available to them for free, no questions asked.
“It’s cool to see a bunch of churches and businesses involved ... to see a lot of different groups and people getting together for one goal," said Fulton.
He believes more can be done to value and support students.
“They’re in a phase of life where everything means something,” said Fulton. “It’s better for them, for the area, and for society if they know there’s a community in their town that cares about them, but isn’t asking them for anything.”
Anyone who would like to help through volunteering, monetary or in-kind donations can reach out to Jane Peck [email protected].
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