Loss of programs and businesses hits residents of Vancouver’s Chinatown

Each week, Stephanie Leo drops off a bag of fresh fruit and vegetables, plus tofu and other protein, at the home of 85-year-old Oi Ho Ng in Chinatown.

They usually engage in a bit of banter in the Toisanese dialect before Leo moves onto the next home. She is a volunteer with the Yarrow Society’s grocery delivery program, which serves about 80 Chinese seniors who live mostly on their own in the neighbourhood.

“Every time, there’s another senior who approaches me and says, ‘how do I become part of this program?’” said Leo.

But this week, she learned some distressing news. The program will be cut at the end of April because of a lack of funding.

In addition, Kent’s Kitchen, a takeout restaurant on Keefer Street that has provided reliable, low-cost meals — hearty rice and noodle box combos filled with a large variety of Cantonese staple dishes — to seniors, but also workers and families, will shut down around the same time.