Parking meter coins buy karma for drivers
(this is crossposted with The Link)
It’s been six weeks since the parking meters started reappearing on Montreal sidewalks. Dubbed “Parco-Don,” these meters don’t get you a parking spot, but the money collected helps a homeless person get a good meal.
“So far so good. We’ve made about $3,000,” says Émilie Moreau, a development counsellor at L’Itinéraire, the organization benefiting from the parking meter project. They publish the bi-weekly magazine of the same name, produced by street people, and run Café sur la rue, which offers hot meals for a few dollars.
“It’s good, you can give money to a social organization without having to give your name and address and wonder what that organization is doing with that information. This is totally anonymous and the response has been really positive.”
Bringing in over $500 a week for the organization, Moreau explains the money goes directly into helping the homeless. It supports Café sur la rue that dishes out 16,000 meals each year and will go to organize social events for homeless people, like the group’s annual trip to a cabane à sucre. Moreau says they are also working on developing an art therapy program. The organization reaches some 2,000 of Montreal’s homeless people each year and employs 350 “Camelots” who produce and sell the magazine.
The Parco-Don meters won’t be replacing the Camelots on the street corners. Moreau explains the meters are targeting a different kind of person.
“People who buy L’Itinéraire are not the people who are putting money in the meters. It’s two different things. People who buy the magazine from one of our Camelots do it for the discussion, the contact,” says Moreau. She says feedback on the fundraising project has been positive so far, though she admits some panhandlers who don’t know what L’Itinéraire is are frustrated that the meters take away business.
Thirty Parko-Don meters are currently in place around the city and the group has been given the go-ahead for 30 more. They are also beginning an advertising campaign with Zoom Media. Moreau says they are hoping to see the results of increased visibility by their Christmas donation campaign.