St. Catharines in Ontario's Niagara Region is not unlike other cities around the country when it comes to the high numbers of people using area food banks.

A colouring book of famous religious paintings shows the beauty of Christian faith both in art and charity.

In the suburbs north of Toronto, faith communities are still banding together to provide emergency shelter to the homeless this winter.

Out of the Cold still isn’t out of the woods as the global pandemic meanders through its fourth wave in Ontario.

Outside the St. Brigid’s Out of the Cold shelter on the last official day of summer, as trees in the park are threatening to burst into red and gold, 28-year-old Harley was wondering whether this church basement might be a place where he could stay.

Society’s most vulnerable are often lost in the shuffle at the best of times, but with the world being blindsided by COVID-19 those operating programs for the homeless and marginalized are working to ensure these people are not forgotten.

As another Out of the Cold season gets underway volunteers are worried about increased violence they face as they offer hot meals and a bed to people living on the street.

For the first time in its 30-year history, researchers have taken a serious look at who uses Toronto’s volunteer, informal, faithbased system of overnight shelters known as Out of the Cold.

In 2006, after 20 years of stellar work with the Out of the Cold program to shelter the homeless, its co-founder was not impressed.

It may be time to consider closing Out of the Cold, said the man responsible for managing the 30-year-old church-based shelter program.

As much of the country contended with an environmental explosion of extreme cold temperatures in early January, Out of the Cold centres were crying out for a better solution.

A nine per cent jump in overnight guests has pushed Toronto’s Out of the Cold system dangerously close to turning people away, according to a new report from Dixon Hall Neighbourhood Services.

Toronto’s ad-hoc, volunteer-run, unofficial, floating shelter system for the homeless begins its 30th year without its co-founder and guiding spirit.

The woman who demanded Toronto meet its homeless citizens face-to-face and heart-to-heart has died. Sr. Sue Moran, co-founder of Out of the Cold, died of a sudden heart attack Sunday night, Dec. 19. She was 78 years old.

Editor’s note: Launched almost 30 years ago as a project at Toronto’s St. Michael’s College School, the Out of the Cold program is a remarkable story of Christian outreach that last winter provided food and shelter to more than 12,000 homeless men and women. That success is celebrated in a just-released book by Catholic Register associate editor Michael Swan. In this excerpt from Out of the Cold: A history of caring, Swan recounts how the program found a home in one downtown Toronto church.