Despite the turf still slightly wet from morning rain, 28 UCC students gathered on the evening of Friday, October 2nd, prepared to spend the night under the stars. To a passing bystander, the scene might have been puzzling: why let students sleep outside in the autumn chill? However, upon watching students lay down hand-woven mats made entirely of upcycled plastic bags, the reason behind the gathering becomes clear.
This was none other than an initiative spearheaded by Bags to Beds, a youth-led nonprofit transforming discarded plastic waste into life-saving warmth for Toronto’s unhoused community. Beyond diverting plastic waste from the environment, the organization’s mission is to life-saving warmth and insulation for those suffering through cold nights in the GTA. In partnership with Covenant House, Bags to Beds hosted a Covenant House Sleep-Out event, providing students at the college with an incredible opportunity to sleep on the Oval for one night and giving them a glimpse of the arduous realities regularly faced by Toronto’s unhoused population. The event was a huge success, raising over $11,000 for youth shelter and support services while simultaneously fostering empathy for the daily challenges of homelessness.
“I think that it’s an awesome cause,” Mr. Parry-Lai, a faculty supervisor for the event, remarked. “It’s great to bring awareness to the unhoused epidemic in Toronto, while raising funds that directly support solutions to the problem.” Another one of our participants echoed this sentiment, stating that “Many [people] in the GTA go through this, and as people who go to such a wonderful school, I think it’s really important that we understand the struggles and experience them.”
In addition, Winston Chan, Chief Operations Officer of Bags to Beds, reflected on the personal impact of the night: “For me, this event truly built empathy for homeless people around the world. If I struggled to fall asleep on a relatively warm night with a jacket and a sleeping bag, how are people without this equipment supposed to survive the winter?” The answer to this question is, they can’t: according to Toronto Public Health, hundreds of unhoused people die every year in Toronto. Winston added, “I think there is not enough awareness about the difficulties homeless people are facing in Toronto… it is something that I’m sure everybody is aware of, but we just kind of put it at the back of our minds.”
The end of the Sleep-Out represents Bags to Beds’ successful start of the school year, but as the organization continues to contribute to the cause, its efforts to address the issue of homelessness will never stop. One mat. One bag. And one life at a time.
