How Carl Mollins helped people make their way back from the margins

There's a tribute to Carl Mollins that many of us would like to have made about us. Mollins  is fondly remembered as a multi-faceted journalist. But the tribute is from The Stop CommunityFood Centre which praises the 30 years of help he and his wife Joan gave to its meal program, community kitchen and gardens. He recently died (May 28) at the age of 84 after a fall on the street along Toronto's lakeshore.

In the 30 years the Mollins family has supported our work, The Stop has grown enormously from the Church Hall at St. Stephen-in-the-Fields. Reverend Cam Russell and other congregants stopped to listen to people in the community, and understood that people were falling through the cracks and needed support as they tried to make their way back from the margins and onto the page. Today, we are still talking and listening to people in the community — thousands every year — over meals and in community kitchens and gardens, and we are still advocating with them for a more dignified life and more equitable city.

For a nice background on her dad and his long and varied career, stretching from Westminster Press in the UK through Canadian Press and Maclean's, see the obituary by his daughter Julie.