It will soon be Christmas! A time for celebrating and feasting!
Unfortunately, many people in our community don’t have enough to eat or may not know where their next meal is coming from. No one should go hungry in the midst of plenty. We need to address the root cause of food insecurity, which is poverty.
Responding to food insecurity is a major part of our work at Beach United:
- Thanks to Gail Tabbitt’s initiative in creating the Reverse Advent program, 34 people have contributed big boxes of non-perishable food to the Daily Bread Food Bank!
- Beach United members and volunteers from the wider community prepare a sumptuous lunch every Thursday – more than 90 bags of food are distributed to people who come to the church, with some taking an extra lunch to deliver to others in the neighbourhood
- Another contributor to the InterFaith Lunch Program, Kingston Road United Church, will now serve lunch from our building every Friday, taking advantage of our large and accessible kitchen
- With the end of the Out of the Cold program, volunteers from Beach, St. Aidan’s and the wider community have explored alternative ways to meet community needs, including providing a hot lunch for 40 people every Wednesday at the Teesdale Place Drop-in centre. And in December we will begin to deliver about 90 meals every Saturday to people sleeping in tents at Moss Park.
Thanks to the committed volunteers many people are not hungry.
If you haven’t had a chance to contribute to these efforts, it isn’t too late. Here’s some things you too can do to ease hunger in our community:
- Donate to the Daily Bread Food Bank – Deliver boxes of non-perishable foods to your local fire hall. Or make a cash contribution – until December 31 all donations will be matched by another donor https://www.dailybread.ca/
- Contribute to the St. Aidan’s Out of the Cold meal programs – send cheques payable to St. Aidan’s Out of the Cold to the church at 2423 Queen Street East or visit Canada Helps https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/137723748RR0001-st-aidans-church/
- Donate to Centre 55’s Share a Christmas Program – Christmas Hampers, which last year helped more than 1000 families, will be replaced due to COVID-19 by a grocery gift card. Families with children up to 16 years of age will also receive age-appropriate toys. https://www.centre55.com/community_programs/share-a-christmas/
- Donate to Beach United Church – Providing take-out meals is much more expensive than “in house” due to the cost of food containers. We are glad that our marvellous kitchen is being used almost every day; but we need to meet the costs of providing that resource. Click on the Donate Now button on the BUC website https://beachunitedchurch.com/about-us/donate/
Let’s all do our part to ease hunger in our community!