Metro Vancouver Dream Centre Society was created as a result of a ministry being provided by Lighthouse of Hope Christian Fellowship (LHOHCF), formerly Rainbow Community Church of Vancouver (RCCV). LHOHCF has been serving the Christian Community, specifically the GLBTS (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered and Straight) Community since 1986 with a weekly Sunday evening service and several mid-week bible studies and other activities in the community. In 2004 the church started a Food Bank and started handing out food bundles to the needy within the congregation. In 2006 more people started coming to the church to partake of the light meal being served after the service and the Food Bank. LHOHCFMembers saw a need to minister to the needy, referred to as Special Guests, and increased the light meal to a full Hot Buffet Meal and through plentiful donations from businesses to give bundles of food from the Food Bank. This grew in 2007 & 2008 to the point that they were serving over 150 to 200 people every Sunday evening after the regular church service.
Pastor Dylan, the pastor of LHOHCF, and various members saw that there was indeed a need of a more permanent service to the needy in the community. On a visit to Calgary he went to the Calgary Dream Centre and saw the work they are doing there. He also investigated and found that this wasn''t the only Dream Centre, but there was another one in Los Angeles (there are more than 130 Dream Centres around the world, each an independent organization). He brought the idea of the Dream Centre to the congregation and a small group saw the vision and started to develop a Dream Centre for Vancouver.
The core group met in the fall of 2007 to brainstorm ideas and in January 2008 the Society was registered. It took a few more months of planning so that in November 2008 the Society took over the operation of the Buffet meal being done at LHOHCF.
In addition, LHOHCF was also providing donated food to The Lion's Den (a senior's day care on Commercial Drive) and Kettle Friendship Association (a service for disabled first nations people). Metro Vancouver Dream Centre Society also assumed responsibility for these services.
In March 2009 LHOHCF moved from their location in the West End and the meal service being done on Sunday evenings was shut down. Fortunately members were searching for an alternative location for the Hot Buffet Meal and Food Bank and encountered St. Michael's Anglican Church (SMAC) on East Broadway in Vancouver. They were providing one meal per month on Friday evenings to a small group of needy people, and were a branch of the Vancouver Food Bank three times per month. Their volunteers were tired and short on funds and looking to close operations when we approached them. Using all that we had learned at LHOHCF we offered to supplement what they were already doing one Friday per month and increased to provide the Hot Buffet Meal to two additional Fridays each month. Within a very short time the meals grew to serving over 120 people three Fridays each month.
New volunteers have come onboard, many coming from various secondary schools in the area, but from all walks of life and organizations, to help with the Friday evenings Hot Buffet Meal. New churches and organizations have heard about our service and have approached us to see if we could bring our meal to their church or organization. The organization is actively searching for a location to have a Food Preparation Facility with a commercial kitchen and refrigeration so that we can prepare meals to increase the service to more churches and organizations.