Lunch Money Day support keeps going...

Recently at work, we had an event called the 'Second Harvest Lunch Money Day Drive', where we were asked to donate the money we would have spent on our lunches to Second Harvest. At a subsequent social event to thank the donors, I had the chance to speak with the Second Harvest staff and learned about the possibility of volunteering as a Driver's Assistant, which I did on 1 May 2008.

Lunch Money Day raised $354,000 in 2007. Only 18% of this total went to administrative costs. Second Harvest considers that a donation of $5 is enough to help them provide food for 10 meals.

Here are a few photos from my day as a Driver's Assistant :http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24890&l=a6c5c&id=511527842

The Second Harvest driver, Ian, had the truck loaded with such items as skids of Orville Redenbacher Popcorn, whole organic milk, sausages, hotdogs, prepared meats, juices, red tea in teabags and trays of prepared food. During our travels we picked up vegetables and fruits from the Whole Foods Market on Avenue Road and the Centre for Opportunities, Respect and Empowerment (CORE), a 'Harvest Kitchen' run by Second Harvest, where people with mental disabilities are trained in food preparation skills and the prepared food delivered to other social service programs where kitchen facilities do not exist.

We delivered food to one public school breakfast program, one high school lunch program, a hostel catering to refugees, the Native Canadian Centre, one Kiwanis after school program, two youth centres, one homeless drop-in centre where meals are offered and the Fort York Food Bank, which serves as both a food bank and a drop-in meal centre.

Two things struck me about what I saw in my travels. First, there is a whole network of social service delivery which operates completely out of sight - both the services and the clientele are out of sight. CORE, a huge centre offering day programs to people with multiple mental challenges in addition to the teaching kitchen, is tucked away on a quiet street in the Spadina - King area. I have passed the Fort York Food Bank on Dundas Street West perhaps 100 times on foot without realizing that it was a food bank. Whatever poverty we see evidence of on the streets of Toronto in our everyday lives, it is truly the tip of the iceberg.

Second, those who were in receipt of the food were both very much in need and infinitely grateful for the help.

The food that Second Harvest collects and distributes would otherwise be wasted and for the most part end up in landfills. Instead, Second Harvest distributes it to people in need.

I believe very strongly in this charity and hope you will support it by volunteering, by encouraging the donation of food when the opportunity arises, and by donating your money to help their operations. You can donate directly here: http://www.canadahelps.org/CharityProfilePage.aspx?CharityID=s45385

Unfortunately, this year Second Harvest is $20,000 short of its Lunch Money Day fundraising target. Please help fill the gap so that Second Harvest may continue to help those in need with an approach that is compassionate, ecological and economical.

Dean Rivando
Senior Database Administrator, Liberal Caucus Service Bureau

Students Sort Food for Second Harvest

A special thank you and your staff for the great experience yesterday volunteering at your organization. Your staff were patient and very encouraging with the students. The sorting, packing and weighing of food, making of boxes,... were valuable teamwork exercises for the students. I think they learned a lot from this volunteer opportunity. Afterwards the students felt very positive / great about themselves and the hard work that they did.

We thoroughly enjoyed it!

I would like to bring some of the same and / or other students next semester and next year, to volunteer at Second Harvest again.

The confirmation letters you sent out will be something students can show their family members and then put into their portfolios for keeping track of their community hours.

I hope your expansion to make your location larger goes smoothly without too much stress for you and your staff.

Again, thank you and your staff for this great experience!

Joan Bird
Teacher at Central Etobicoke High School

The Best Day at Work

As an event staffer for Second Harvest, I am often bound to my computer and phone, or engaged in meetings with colleagues, sponsors, suppliers or committee volunteers, or in production at the event venue. I enjoy my work and the people I connect with to achieve my work goals, but it can be easy to get lost in the work itself and focus on getting my piece of the puzzle done.

The best remedy for this tunnel vision has always been to spend a day on a truck with one of our drivers. The title of “Driver” is deceptive: their role extends far beyond driving the trucks and moving food from one place to another. They embody the spirit and mandate of Second Harvest and it’s evident in the way they provide excellent customer service to our food donors, the way they are finely attuned to each agency’s particular needs, and the way they help out the office staff by picking up a money collection or a donated Auction prize while out on their routes. Each of them is a great ambassador for our mission, vision, and organizational culture of inclusion, acceptance and helping.

I had a tiny taste of their experience the Friday before Christmas and it was a day I will not soon forget. I was scheduled to go out on a truck, but our dispatcher Sam had something different in mind: when I arrived I was handed my own route sheet and told that I would be driving our little panel van around town, picking up a number of food-drive collections from companies, small offices and schools. My colleague Abby joined me, and seven hours later we had picked up about 10,000 pounds of food that would be sorted back at our warehouse, to be delivered to agencies the next morning.

It is difficult to pin down the most rewarding part of that day: was it meeting donors who were thrilled to donate food to us? Or knowing that this food would be getting to our agencies in time for Christmas? Or hoping that in doing this little route for just one day, I had helped our drivers even a fraction as much as they help thousands of hungry people every day?

Jennifer Verschraegen, Manager of Special Events and Sponsorship