OREIO delivers much needed items

Last night, I had the pleasure of attending an event hosted by the Ottawa Real Estate Investors Organization. This was the third time this month I had a chance to be with them.

Last week, we were on CTV Morning Live to talk about their food and clothing drive this winter. OREIO is a strong believer in Shepherds of Good Hope. They know a lot of people like to help the homeless in the months leading up to Christmas. They wanted to ensure there was no drop-off once the blah months came along.

So last night they held an event where I had a chance to address the crowd to talk about how Shepherds of Good Hope helps some of the most vulnerable men and women in Ottawa.

It was a good thing I took the van with me. I was impressed with how much they collected in such a short period of time.

Thank you so much to Victor Menasce, Managing Partner of US Real Estate Partners, for his work in making all of this happen.

On behalf of everyone at Shepherds of Good Hope, we appreciate the hard work and the fundraising and we look forward to more donations over the coming weeks.

Food donations dip in the summer

I hope everyone had a great long weekend. It ended with a little bit of rain throughout the day Monday, but overall, it was a nice weekend.

Now it's back to work. Back to our routines. And one of the routines I hope to get people into this summer is to remember to donate food. I appreciate all the donations we get, but the summer is always a challenge and this summer is no different.

At Shepherds of Good Hope, we open our grocery program twice a week to the community. We're really the only Lowertown food bank. I always know when it's grocery day because of the lineup going out the doors and into the parking lot.

The Ottawa Food Bank does supply us and all community food banks with food. But they, too, get hit with the summer donation slowdown.

So what are we looking for? We're looking for non-perishable goods, things like coffee, tea, dried pasta, pasta sauce, canned vegetables, soups and fruits, dried beans, rice and lentils.

Other popular items are things like toilet paper, soap, shampoo, toothpaste, and deodorant.

Not only do we hand out food twice a week, but we also use some of it to feed the men and women who come to our soup kitchen. No one is in danger of not getting fed, but as you can tell from the photos below, some of our shelves are starting to look a little bare.

So how can you help? If you have some additional canned goods or any of the above mentioned items that you would like to donate, please drop by our 233 Murray St. location. In the back parking lot is a convenient drop-off window. We appreciate anything you can give. Even just one bag of groceries will make a huge difference in the life of someone who relies on us in order to feed their family.

For more information, here's a link to our donation page.

Looking for 600 people to help fund truck repairs

When I heard that our large truck was out of commission for repairs, I thought: oh,oh. That truck is the one our food and grocery program workers use every day to travel the city to pick up donations.

We use it to pick up bread, canned goods, staples and meat at various grocery stores. We head out to the far limits of Ottawa to get produce and fruit from Shouldice Farm. Businesses like Shopify that have their own kitchens will donate leftovers to us on a regular basis. Or we might use the truck to pick up a load of donations someone in the community has raised for us.

We also use the truck to make deliveries to our other facilities, like Hope Living in Kanata.

We have a smaller van that we've been using but on some days it means several trips back and forth so that we can unload and then head back out on the road.

We're very grateful that Shepherds of Good Hope has people who believe in what we do and donate regularly. Thank you. We would not be able to serve 1,600 men and women if not for the kind people who send us money or goods.

Going out on social media to raise funds for a specific project is not something we do often. We gave it serious thought. We settled on this idea because we think it's doable. By keeping the requested donation low and spread out among a large group, we're counting on 600 people to dig into their pockets and make that $10 donation online.

Fixing the truck is a necessity. We can't do our jobs without it. When we get to 600 people, we'll know we have enough donations to cover off the costs of the repairs. Please donate by visiting our truck campaign fund.

The spirit of giving

Yesterday I blogged about how parents can get their children involved in helping charities.

Today, I had the pleasure of meeting an eight-year-old girl who doesn't need to be taught the spirit of giving.

Hayley spent the last few weeks and the first week of her summer vacation collecting goods and food for Shepherds of Good Hope. She did it by reaching out to her neighbours and area businesses where she lives.

Today, she delivered dozens of bags of clothing as well as cases of food; things like soup, coffee and bottled water.

Hayley is a special girl. Even though she's only eight, she knows there are people in our community who are going without what you and I take for granted. And so she wants to make a difference.

Hayley raised so much that we had to send out one of bigger trucks in order to get it all back to the shelter.

Hayley and her family then stopped by so that we could give them a tour of our soup kitchen and the food/grocery program.

It touches my heart when children want to help us out - either on their own or as part of their class at school.

There's a saying that society is judged by how it treats its least fortunate. (There are quite a few variations of this saying).

Well, let me just say, with children like Hayley, our society has a bright future.