2013 was a year of trying new ideas. With such a good group of volunteers from the board level to the volunteers picking up food at the different stores, to our client service volunteers, to our Alt school coordinator, WOW! You did an amazing job in 2013. Thank you!
With close to 70 volunteers who are the backbone of the Stittsville Food Bank you make our little grocery store run smoothly. The volunteers keep food stocked, check dates for expired food, provide fresh food for our clients, pick up food from different locations in Stittsville, wash floors and put out garbage. The work is hard but very rewarding and is really appreciated by everyone served.
May 2013 was our very first Sponsor Volunteer Appreciation night and it was a tremendous success and enjoyed by all. Special thank you goes out to the Male Chorus who performed that evening.
Total people served in 2013 were down from 2012. But more families were served; 783 families in 2012 and 833 families in 2013. Stittsville Food Bank had 63 new families.
Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas clients were provided with hampers of seasonal food items.
The Christmas Hamper is a very complete hamper of food items, including the client’s choice of a turkey or ham, and gifts for all children 18 and younger. The volunteer coordinator who coordinates the Christmas hampers works closely with the Client Service Director and Inventory Director to ensure plenty of food is available for hampers. A special thank you goes out to our Christmas Angels and Christmas helpers. Christmas at the Stittsville Food Bank was a little different than in previous years. The deliveries of Christmas hampers were introduced and work out better than we expected. The Community of Stittsville were requested to help out in decorating boxes for our clients and families and children came on board to make our Christmas hampers very festive.
The Food Inventory
SFB delivery of perishable’s by the grocery stores is greatly appreciated and helps the SFB provide fresh milk, eggs, cheese, meat, vegetables and fruit to our clients. We were very fortunate this year to have a vast amount of food drives and our shelves for the summer months stayed moderately filled. With the food drives contributing it brought our grocery expenses down for 2013. At SFB we believe healthy food is a healthy body and is essential to a healthy life.
Non-perishables donations from food bins at Brown’s Independent Grocers, Giant Tiger, Sobeys, the Goulbourn Recreation Centre (compliments of the local Municipal Councilor Shad Qadri), Walmart, Food Basics, continue to augment stock. Food donations provided by the churches in Stittsville, sponsors specific food items and shelves and this has turned out to be a blessing.
The Food Drive team continues to work hard to ensure food drives from generous donors are shelved by sorting and checking best-before dates.
We thank and congratulate the Stittsville News, for their willingness to promote and advise the community about Food Bank needs and upcoming food drives.
The Stittsville Food Bank is so fortunate to have the incredible generosity of the community of Stittsville. The Stittsville Food Bank does not receive any type of funding assistance, but relies 100% on donations from the public. Without this assistance it would cease to function. Again in 2013, food and cash donations ensured the continuation of support to those families in need. The financial status is healthy, and shelves are well stocked, again thanks to the generosity of so many businesses, organizations, service clubs and individuals.
The Stittsville Food Bank runs solely on volunteers.
Thank you.
Theresa Qadri
Chair, Stittsville Food Bank
February 24, 2014
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