WePress Community Kitchens

Created by long-time artists and community organizers, WePress is a community artspace in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) of Vancouver, BC, Canada on the occupied and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓il̓wətaʔł (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

The mission of WePress is to advance education by providing workshops on historic and contemporary methods of print- and art-making for the public, with a particular focus on individuals from marginalized communities in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES).

WePress offers historic and contemporary methods of print- and art-making in a safe and welcoming space, particularly to those marginalized by systems of class, sexuality, gender, race, culture, disability, mental health, addictions, and colonization. We seek to support them to voice their stories, lived experience, and dreams, and to build community capacity and resilience through art-making.

We are providing education and art-making opportunities – particularly for our unique assortment of hard-to-access technologies, including a letterpress and type (wood, polymer, and metal letterforms, and soon, a set of 8000+ Chinese characters), and two 3D printers – to the public from our space in the downtown eastside.

During the COVID-19 crisis, WePress has pivoted to provide hot meals Monday-Friday every week to fill in the gaps in food services that existed because of the pandemic. The community kitchen delivers 200+ meals a day to 5 different organisations who then distribute the meals in their respective areas; AFD, WAHRS, OPS, VANDU and KT Camp at Strathcona Park.

We aim to provide well-balanced, nutritious and delicious meals, delivered free-of-charge to the residents of the Downtown Eastside. Our kitchen accepts volunteers of all skill levels, and we aim to be as accessible as possible. The kitchen vibe is very relaxed and friendly, and volunteers eat lunch together after the day is done.