By Neil Armstrong
An organization that has served the needs of people
dealing with issues of poverty and homelessness in the Peel Region for over 26
years wants individuals to adopt a family over the holiday season.
For the
past ten years, Knights Table has been engaging sponsors with its “Adopt a Family this holiday season”
initiative.
The organization will
provide the sponsor with a brief background and profile of the family (for
example, a single mother and two kids), a grocery shopping list, and wish list
of gifts for the children.
The sponsor can request the family size/makeup that they are willing to support and can provide the funds for Knights Table to purchase the food and gifts for the adopted family, or the sponsor can “enjoy the experience to purchase the food and ‘wish list gifts’ for their family on their own.”
The sponsor can request the family size/makeup that they are willing to support and can provide the funds for Knights Table to purchase the food and gifts for the adopted family, or the sponsor can “enjoy the experience to purchase the food and ‘wish list gifts’ for their family on their own.”
Lena Shaw, volunteer
and outreach manager, said people told Knights Table this is what they wanted
to do and Knights Table had to come up with a plan for it.
“We know on average how
much it costs because we normally give our clients weekly food. So, in the
month of December, because we close the food bank, that’s when we give them a
month’s worth of groceries. It carries them into January until we open the food
bank again.”
Shaw says they
calculate what a month’s worth of grocery is and for a mother of two, it’s
roughly $600.
Supported by a staff of nine and
over 3,200 volunteers who are committed to assisting people who come
through its doors, Knights Table says they assist the clients regardless of
colour, culture, religion, economic status, gender, sexual orientation or
social condition.
“During the interview process
when our clients are sitting down with the operations manager, they need to
give us proof of I.D., proof of address and rental agreement,” says Shaw.
In terms of number of racialized
people served by the organization, Shaw says sometimes when she does intakes
one out of every two falls in that category.
She said someone who is homeless
does not have access to the food bank because a person needs to have a kitchen
to cook. Knights Table is open every day for the homeless.
“People who are living in a
basement apartment or even a storey in a house, whatever, as long as they have access
to a kitchen then they have access to our food bank and our holiday hamper.”
The people who qualify for their
services are on Ontario Works, on Ontario Disability and part of the working
poor families – they’re making less than $22,000 per year.
Knights Table is supported by
various levels of government, businesses, charitable foundations, groups,
churches and individuals.
“With their assistance they make
it possible for our doors to remain open to serve over 74,000 meals annually,”
it says.
St.
Marguerite d'Youville church adopts twenty families annually and sometimes
corporation say they will handle one, or sometimes wealthy families want to
teach their kids about sharing the wealth and will sponsor families, Shaw says.
She
says sponsored families are “thrilled and overjoyed.”
“The
love and passion that people put in their hampers is incredible. They go above
and beyond. We basically will say just three gifts. We figured they would want
pajamas, here’s a pair of boots, it’s not a gift, it’s not a toy, I know, they
go above and beyond in giving so the families are just overjoyed by the gestures
of love.”
Knights Table is dedicated to
inspiring people to achieve their full potential.
It helps by providing food bank,
hot meals and other services to the people of Brampton who deal with the daily
issues of hunger, poverty and homelessness.
Forty-three
per cent of its clients self report a physical disability, mental illness
affects more than 23% of its client group, and over 26% are homeless.
Shaw
says on a weekly basis clients come in to get their groceries from the food
bank but in the month of December the food bank “becomes the holiday hamper
because it’s one month of groceries, they also get a turkey with all its
fixings and each child’s gift to open on Christmas morning.”
That’s
what they do for their clients but when a corporation or a church says they
want to adopt a family, Knights Table gives them a list of the groceries and
the family’s wish list.
They
also arrange a day and time for both parties to meet if they want to do so.
“My belief is that we
are born to serve and there’s something innate in us that we need to open up
our heart and give – there’s something inside. When we see a need we seek to
fulfill it and Knights Table is a great place for you to do that,” says Shaw
about the reason people should volunteer there.
The volunteer and outreach manager said volunteers must be
16 years and older, and during December the organization is aggressively
looking for groups of ten to come in during the evenings (6-9pm) to help with
the holiday hampers.
“Not everybody gets adopted out because we have over a
thousand families who are counting on us so we need groups of ten to come and
volunteer,” she said, noting that such groups make an impact.
[This story has been published in the NA Weekly Gleaner, Dec. 21-27, 2017.]
[This story has been published in the NA Weekly Gleaner, Dec. 21-27, 2017.]
No comments:
Post a Comment