Year End Report 2017
2017 was a year was a special year as the 150th Birthday of Canada. Our community made a mark this year in many ways in helping the Stittsville Food Bank. Thank you to all of our donors, the individuals, the business, the service clubs, schools and all the children and from scouts, girl guides, brownies, cubs, beavers, sparks and students. Our client base grew and service was increased. We grew and learned from one another on how to make the food bank more efficient for volunteers and our clients. Groceries are dated by month and year in order to reduce waste. This is a lot of work and keeps volunteers busy. Stocking, sorting and date checks is one of the ongoing jobs. Cleaning, organizing, picking up food and speaking at the schools are some of the jobs the volunteers help with.
Stittsville food bank has well over eighty five volunteers in a year. There are teams serving clients on a weekly basis, also volunteers picking up food at all the bins around Stittsville. We have a Youth
Volunteer day every second Sunday as well as an Adult Volunteer Day once a week. The volunteers are the back bone of the Stittsville Food Bank and they consist of people from the age of 12 to 85 years old. Our volunteers are committed, intelligent, and strong individuals. I would like to say a special thank you to you all. I am so proud to be the Chair of the Stittsville Food Bank. The Stittsville Food Bank is run solely by hard working volunteers and they are instrumental to the existence of the food bank.
May 2017 we held our annual Volunteer and Donor Appreciation Evening. The evening was an amazing success in recognizing volunteers, individual donors, businesses, schools, churches, service clubs and our fire services for all their help. We recognized the youth as well as the adults. This year the food bank was transformed into an amazing art gallery. All of the art came from the youth at Sacred Heart High School, South Carleton High School, Frederick Banting High School and École secondaire catholique PaulDesmarais.
The theme of the art work was Canada’s 150th Birthday, Respect, Dignity, Peace and Hope. The youth opened everyone’s eyes to how they interpreted the theme. They did a great job with the guidance of their art teachers, Christine Barbier and Christine MacGregor -Catio from South Carleton High School, Mary Williamson from Frederick Banting High School, Leydin Mullall from Sacred Heart and École secondaire catholique Paul-Desmarais teacher was Mme Maude Luneau, The evenings master of ceremony was Suzanne Pinel and the special guests were Mayor Jim Watson and Councillor Shad Qadri.
The unveiling of the art was the highlight of the evening as we shared this with the donors and the volunteers. We have had many visitors to the food bank in 2017 such as the grade 6 class at Holy Spirit who walks down to the food bank every year with food. The Scouts, Cubs, Beavers Guides and Brownies have been a life saver with their food drives. For every person that sent in a donation or brought food for a grocery bin around town, your church, your school, your place of business, Thank you! To the individuals who helped provide hampers, and the volunteers who delivered Thank-You!
Thank you for wanting to learn about the Stittsville Food Bank and for helping. Our holiday hampers for Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas were filled with many extras this year thanks to the tremendous support of our community. The Stittsville Food bank believes clients should be treated with respect and dignity, giving those hopes for a better future and peace in their families. Healthy food is essential in all our lives therefore providing milk, eggs, cheese, meat, fresh vegetables and fruit to our clients is extremely important to us. Healthy food EQUALS Healthy minds. People come to the food bank as a priority in their life at that specific time in their lives. Do I stay home with my sick child? Do I pay my mortgage first, I was laid off and the Stittsville Food Bank says yes, we will help you with food. The reason people use food banks is for a variety of reasons. Everyone needs help at some point in their lives, so it never hurts to ask if you need assistance. We are here to give people a helping hand up and hope someday they are able to help someone else. We have experienced clients spending a few years with us and then they are up on their feet and donate to the food bank. That is paying it forward. Kindness goes along way.
The Stittsville Food bank does not receive any type of funding assistance, but instead relies 100% on donations from the public. 2017 donations of food and cash ensured the continuation of support to all families in need. Thank you and may your lives be healthy and happy!
