Heartwood Community Cafe seeks to provide a space for social justice in Vancouver

Glancing at the busy event calendar for the Heartwood Community Cafe gives a sense of the variety of groups being provided a platform at the East Broadway space.

From an event celebrating women in mariachi, to a Les Miserables sing-a-long, to an exhibit on the cafe’s walls from the Art Studios, an art and mental-health program, the restaurant aims to provide a platform for “stories that are often unheard”.

“It’s bringing up the folks, the communities that don’t often usually get a space,” Melanie Matining, the community development manager at Heartwood, told the Straight in an interview at the cafe. “We’re saying: ‘we want to make this space for you, because you’re important.’”

Matining and manager Ana-Luz Cobon are both concerned about the space’s future amid the increasing costs of running the space, which was formerly the Rhizome Cafe. 

“At this point, it’s tricky to balance what we are doing in terms of offering good food, trying to balance that with accessible prices, offering the space to groups so that we can really have a sense of community-building in here, so offering that as a sort of donation space,” Cobon said.

Heartwood recently released a series of videos highlighting the cafe and the community members who access the space.

Some of the restaurant's initiatives include its Soup for the People program, which provides daily nutritious meals at pay-what-you-can prices.

“What we’re trying to do is really challenge the idea of charity,” said Matining. “And bring it back to the idea of community collaboration and creation…If you can put in a dollar, if you can put in two bucks, you can put in $5, you can put in $20. Knowing that however much you put in, [it’s] also kind of like making it so that we can all work together, and in a way, it’s kind of like we’re breaking bread together.”

That concept of community collaboration is key to the role the neighbourhood restaurant aims to fill. Matining describes the space as a “social justice cafe”.

“It’s us going out of our way to figure out: what is a way that we can give back to community,” Matining explained.

“And also with that, calling out the community and saying: ‘hey, we’re in this together, how can we support each other.’ Because really in terms of Heartwood…our story continues with community.”

Matining and Cobon note that the food at Heartwood is local and organic, and their ethically-sourced products include fair-trade Cafe Justicia coffee from Guatemala. They also offer vegan and gluten-free menu items.

Some of the types of events regularly held at the cafe include book readings and all-ages acoustic shows.

Matining said they hope to connect with more service providers in the area. Youth involved with organization Leave Out Violence and people who access Rain City Housing already use the space, she said.

“We want to get people who have limited access to resources [to] come in and be able to know that this is a space where they can come in and feel welcome, you know, and where they can have really awesome, nutritious food, and fill their bellies,” she said.

She added that currently there are “slim pickings” in terms of accessible spaces for social justice in the city.

“I really do think that we have something really awesome and unique going on,” she said.

More information about upcoming events and programs at the Heartwood Community Cafe is available on their website.