Page 46 - 01-Jan-Feb-2025

Trailblazer
TaylorSoroka Soroka
Taylor
Soroka
As a teenager in the mid-aughts, Taylor Soroka
spent a lot of time on her skateboard, zipping
around Edmonton. When she crossed paths with new
people, she’d kick up her board and say hello.
“You meet people in community and, as you get to know
them, you get to know their stories and you want to be in
community with them,” she says. “And for me, that means
you care about your neighbours.”
Too many of the people she met were unhoused, which
angered her: “We are in one of the wealthiest parts of the
world. There’s no reason why anyone should sleep outside.”
Confronted with what she saw as a ridiculous and
solvable problem, she set out to do something. In 2006, she
recruited her community-minded father, Murray, to help
her deliver meals to unhoused community members in
their west-end neighbourhood.
“After a while, it just seemed easier to rent space and
have community in a space,” says Soroka. At the time, her
father was a successful business person in the city who
owned and operated several restaurants. But he made time
to fundraise through his church and by knocking on doors
in his community to pay for a space on Stony Plain Road.
46 EDify. JANUARY • FEBRUARY.2546 EDify. JANUARY • FEBRUARY.25