At our heart, Megaphone’s Vendor Program supports individuals experiencing poverty or homelessness in Vancouver. Each year, we support over 150 vendors who purchase our community-driven publications at wholesale cost to sell legally on the street, keeping the profits to supplement their income.
This program offers a meaningful, self-determined way to generate income, especially for those with barriers to traditional employment, such as homelessness, disability, substance use or social exclusion. Vendors work for themselves, buy their own product, decide where and when they will work and develop their own customer base. Megaphone products are high quality journalism and literary publications that vendors can be proud to sell to the public. Megaphone staff support through trauma-informed, skills-building programs, promotions and community referrals.
The sales model is simple. Vendors buy:
- Megaphone magazine for $1.50 and sell it on the street for $5+
- Voices of the Street anthology for $5 and sell it on the street for $15+
- Hope in Shadows calendar for $10 and sell it on the street for $20+
We operate a Vendor Hub in the heart of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) at 312 Main Street. Our low-barrier, non-judgemental hub is where we sell product to vendors, offer accessible programming, engage the DTES community, and other individuals experiencing deep poverty in Vancouver, and support individuals.
