Students getting a charitable education

One of the fun parts of my job is getting a chance to meet with so many students who come to Shepherds of Good Hope for a tour.

Regular readers of my blog know I'm a big believer in everyone getting a firsthand look at what we do. We're very well known for being a shelter and a soup kitchen. Food and shelter are indeed two very important things Ottawa's most vulnerable men and women need. But we are so much more and over our 32 years, we have moved beyond a soup kitchen.

Typically students come for a tour because they want to do something for us. They want to give back to those most in need, especially as we get closer to the holidays. They visit because they want to see the impact their donation is going to have. Quite often it inspires them to exceed their original goal.

Depending on the size of the class, students get a tour of the soup kitchen, the food and grocery program and we also give a short presentation on our other services.

This morning students from Pierre Savard School and Immaculata High School were here. Thank you so much everyone for coming out.

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.

From the garden

Last week, I blogged about how many readers enjoyed the story about France banning unsold food. In case you missed it, France is going to force large supermarkets to donate their food to charities. The story has been getting lots of views on our Facebook page and on Twitter.

Then there are companies who don’t wait for the food to go unsold. Companies like Suntech Greenhouses. I tweeted last week about how during the late spring and summer months they donate tomatoes to us every Thursday.

Our food services coordinator Dan Gardiner got on the truck and made his way to Manotick for the weekly pick-up. He brought back with him more than 1,700 tomatoes.

The men and women who make their way through our soup kitchen seven days a week, sometimes three times a day, really benefit from fresh food. We all do. The kitchen can use the tomatoes to make sauces, a variety of dishes, or just a good ol’ tomato sandwich. Who doesn’t enjoy a tomato sandwich? I can tell you when I take a walk through the dining area, a lot of our clients are enjoying those tomatoes.

The summer months are always a great time to provide more fresh food to our clients who visit out grocery program. Donations like these make that possible. For those of us who have backyard gardens, harvest time is still a ways off. But when the time comes, if you find yourself with too many cucumbers, strong beans, potatoes or any vegetable, we’ll happily take them off your hands.

The debate over food

I came across some interesting news last week that we posted to our Facebook page. And by your reaction and the number of times you shared the story, it created a bit of a buzz.

In France, a law has been passed that bans large supermarkets from throwing out unsold food. The law obligates them to donate it to charities. And in Germany, a network of free food distribution sites was set up (in addition to the existing food banks) as a way to distribute unused food. A study found that more than 60 per cent of food waste in Germany was unnecessary. People were shocked.

Some Ottawa grocery stores are very good at finding a new home for the food they can’t sell. We benefit from their generosity. But do we need a law like the one they have in France? I’d love to hear what you think.

I wonder how many people know where we get our food. It’s obvious it’s donated. But where does it actually come from? Well, as I mentioned, some of it comes from grocery stores. Another chunk comes from small markets, bakeries, independent food stores, school can drives, food producers, and ordinary Ottawans who stop by our back door at 233 Murray St. You can never give too little. We take whatever donation you can give us.

We have a lot of regular donors, but we also have a lot of unexpected donations. Earlier this week, we had someone drop off a few tubs of ice cream. That’s a great dessert to serve in the soup kitchen, especially on a hot day. We also had a group drop off a box of muffins that they had bought for a company event. It might have been 20 muffins but that meant 20 men and women who use our services every day were able to have a muffin for breakfast or maybe as an evening snack when they came to our drop-in. Another example is a company that held a staff barbecue and had several packages of hot dog rolls and hamburger buns left over. We can us all of this in our soup kitchen or in our grocery program.

We all need shelter and we all need food. The 1,600 men and women who use our services every day are no different. If you would like to donate to our grocery program, it’s as simple as dropping it off at 233 Murray St. You can also contact Dan, who runs the grocery and clothing program, at 613-789-8210, ext. 243.

(Below, ice creamed is served earlier this week in the soup kitchen at 233 Murray St.)