How One Local Church is Aiming High in Donations to Support Their Local Food Bank
May 10, 2022
Tagan Mani, Marketing & Fund Development Coordinator connected with longtime supporter and donor of SCHC, Donald MacOdrum. Donald serves as the Chair of the Mission and Outreach Committee at the Guildwood Community Presbyterian Church (pictured above). Read below as he shares a brief history of the church’s community outreach initiatives including supporting SCHC and their big fundraising goal this year.
What made your committee want to fundraise for the SCHC food bank?
Our church recognizes the important work of SCHC and has been a supporter of the SCHC Food Bank for several years collecting food and providing an annual donation (for the last couple of years it has been $1,000.) We also have participated in SCHC’s A Gift To Remember program.
What do you want people to know about food insecurity and why should they give back? Why the $10,000 goal?
Our church has done a major fund raising mission project approximately every two years. In past years we have targeted and raised $20,000 each time, but this year, since the church is not open due to COVID we were less ambitious and targeted $10,000. In past years, our Mission Projects have supported both local and foreign activities where people were in need. The local ones included supporting the computer lab at Evangel Hall Mission, renovating the kitchen at Portland Place, supporting ARISE ministry to people caught in the sex trade in Toronto. Foreign missions included supporting providing wells for clean water in Malawi and roofs for schools and churches, also in Malawi.
This year we selected the SCHC food bank because of the added pressure on food banks caused by COVID. We are also promoting donations of food to the food bank. As of June 24, we are a little over 1/4 of the way to our goal which we think is good since the project did not start until mid-March!
What Can You Do?
We know that an annual goal of $10,000 is a big donation for anyone to make, which is why we are extremely thankful for the commitment Don and his team at the Guildwood Community Presbyterian Church has made this year and all the years they have been supporting us. The food bank is a dependable source to many Scarborough residents who face financial health issues. That is why we launch our Food Fight campaign to help collect as many donations as we can to help support those in need.
It doesn’t have to be $10,000 because every donation matters and counts towards helping feed those experiencing a hard time. If you’d like to donate in any capacity please visit our donation page and select either Food Fight or Food bank to make your contribution!