Stittsville Food Bank has amazing volunteers and they all shined in 2014. With over seventy volunteers we are blessed with volunteers at the board level to the volunteers picking up food at the different locations. We have teams that serve our clients and teams that help when we have a large food drives or if the food bank needs a good cleaning and organizing. Our Volunteers are the backbone of the Stittsville Food Bank and help with the running of the store, stocking, checking dates, providing fresh foods, and much more.

The work is hard but is very rewarding and is really appreciated by the clients we serve. May 2014 Volunteer and Donor Appreciation Night was a great success. In 2014 we asked the schools grade 5 & 6 classes if they would like to produce a new Food Bank logo. The schools did not let us down. We had over forty logos submitted. The winner that took first place came from Holy Spirit Catholic School and her logo is at the top of this page. Sophie’s message that she added to her logo submission is worth repeating:

“I chose the motive of two hands identical except for colour to symbolize equality and people in the         community helping people in the community. I picked blue for the top hand because blue symbolizes generosity and studies have shown that it can decrease hunger. I thought that it would be an interesting colour for a food bank. I made the background green as it symbolizes re-growth.” “When my class went on a field trip to the Stittsville Food Bank and the volunteer there told us the purpose of the food bank was to help members of the community get back on their feet, so green seemed to go with that. And finally the apple is a basic symbol of food.”         “The blue hand is sharing with the pink hand.”

Sophie understood what was explained to her and wrote down her thoughts for all of us to learn from.

Second and Third place students came from A Lorne Cassidy. All the young people did an amazing job and big thank you goes out to all. At the Volunteer and Donor Appreciation Night the students, their families, teachers and principals joined in the celebration. It was a very proud moment for all.

In Easter we had a visitor the Easter Bunny on service night and that put a lot of smiles on volunteers and clients’ faces. A lovely hamper with hams, hot cross buns and all the extras was handed out along with a spring flower and candies. In Thanksgiving we handed out pumpkin and apple pies along with a turkey and all the extras for a beautiful meal. Christmas was a challenge this year as space was very limited as we did not have the free bay to use. We had to put the hampers together in a seven day process and then deliver. We called upon our treasured fire fighters from Station 46 to help and they stepped up to the plate. They helped us collect all the food from the grocery store and helped with all the unloading at the food bank. When we arrived at the food bank, some of the volunteers from Station 81 also came over to give us a hand. We are so fortunate to live in our caring community Stittsville, where helping your neighbour comes naturally.

Food For Our Clients

Stittsville Food Bank delivery of perishables by grocery stores helps maintain proper accountability and helps us provide fresh milk, eggs, cheese, margarine, meat, vegetables, bread, prepared meals and fruit to our clients. Non– perishable donations from food bins at Brown’s Independent Grocers, Giant Tiger, Sobeys, the Goulbourn Recreation Centre (compliments of the local Municipal councillor Shad Qadri), Walmart, Food Basics, help in keeping our shelves stocked for our clients. Our churches help with keeping certain shelves full. It really is a community affair. The Food Drive Director continues to organize the delivery of food to the food bank and helps with sorting and shelving of products.   We would like to thank and congratulate the Stittsville News, for their wiliness to promote and advise the community about the 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. 2014 donations of food and cash ensured the continuation of support to those families in need. The financial status is healthy and the shelves are well stocked, again thanks to the generosity of so many businesses, organizations, service clubs and individuals that care.

The Stittsville Food Bank runs solely on volunteers.

Thank you all,

Theresa Qadri                                                                                                                                                               Chair, Stittsville Food Bank