By Yuna Cho

A non-profit charity cafe is celebrating 50 years serving the community around Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU).

Since 1976, Trinity Square Cafe has been supporting people living with mental health challenges, offering them a place to develop “valuable interpersonal and employability skills” through working as cafe staff and building new connections within the local community.

Kelly Brown is the vice-chair of the volunteer-run board of directors of Trinity Square Cafe. She told The Eyeopener how the cafe has been serving as an inclusive, safe space for the local community, not just for the people who work with them, “in the middle of a very busy downtown.”

Brown said the cafe plays a role as “a bit of an escape in the heart of the city” and is “really accessible to students at TMU, offering that quiet kind of solitude.”

Lesley Norton is the executive director of Trinity Square Cafe. She’s witnessed its growth over the 30 years she’s worked for the program.

Norton described the cafe as both a workplace and a social place that offers “a good start” to the participants. Their mental health conditions can often fluctuate, she said, which makes it difficult for them to maintain conventional employment that requires them to work set hours and complete a specific amount of work. “They need more flexibility,” said Norton.

Cameron Woods, one of the program’s participants, said he has been working at Trinity Square Cafe for around a year. Every Thursday afternoon, he commutes downtown and works his shift, where his tasks range from serving in the dining area or baking in the kitchen.

According to Norton, the program serves people of various ages from their late teens to their late 80s, all of whom have different kinds and levels of mental health challenges. She said they consider whether clients are comfortable enough to have social interaction and participate in social activities.

Max Rudenko is a third-year electrical engineering student. He learned about the cafe through his interview with The Eye. 

He said its safe and quiet environment is “definitely appealing,” admitting he finds it hard to discover an ideal location to study around the campus and downtown. “Our campus doesn’t really have that much space to sit,” Rudenko said.

Nasra Khalif, a second-year professional communications student, agrees. As an international student from the United Kingdom, she said “finding a community that [she fits] into” is one of her biggest struggles navigating school life in a large city like Toronto.

Brown said inflation following the COVID-19 pandemic and economic pressures resulting from U.S. tariffs have increased prices, making overall operations more challenging for the cafe. 

Maher Qureshi, a program staff member who has been working at the cafe for three years, said it is becoming difficult to maintain the program and expand some services. 

She said the program is important as many of the clients already consider the cafe an important part of their daily lives and hopes the cafe will continue to grow as an established part of the community. “If we could get more funding, we could hire more staff to help with the workload.”

Trinity Square Cafe is a publicly-funded program supported by the Ontario Ministry of Health. According to the ministry’s detailed payment schedule, the funding amount of $387,073 remained unchanged from 2023-25.

Still, Brown said they’re trying all they can to keep “serving the community and keeping the door open.”

With files from Rin Yanase