Finding affordable food in Vancouver can be a challenge, especially if you live in a single room occupancy unit (SRO) where you can’t cook.

Involved in several Indigenous organizations serving the Downtown Eastside, Chris Livingstone runs Smoke Signals, a space that provides access to phones and computers to people who wants to stay in touch with their loved ones. It would also transform into a food hub twice a week. Lately, the hub moved its operations to the Uncommon Café, recently bought by a friend of Chris.

“We're working towards indigenizing this place,” he says.

Reporter Gunargie O’Sullivan catches up with him on a day when his team were preparing 200 sandwiches to be delivered to another DTES organization, the Aboriginal Front Door Society.

They talk about Chris' new ideas to expand the Uncommon Cafe activities. “Hopefully we'll be able to keep the business going and keep our peers going, find some funding to pay our guys and to buy materials, and provide low cost foods to people in the Downtown Eastside.”

Chris Livingstone on September 17 at the Uncommon Café - Photo by Gunargie O'Sullivan