Here is a picture of our new fridge and freezer. We have been struggling with a great problem this past year. We have more frozen food and cold food than our current units can handle. Thanks to Zeller's closing sales, we were able to pick up these for $7000. They are worth a lot more than that and are in great shape. It is going to cost about $2000 to have them dismantled, shipped and installed. So, for $9000 we solved a large problem. Now the challenge is to raise the money to pay for them. If you would like to help out in this way you can send a cheque, or do it through Canada Helps, online. The tab is a click away, on our home page. Just write, "Fridge&freezer" in a comment or on the cheque. This equipment was much needed and will go a long way to enabling us to serve our community better. Have an amazing Christmas! K

When It Rains...

An old saying, "When it rains, it pours". Sometimes this happens at the Food Bank, and this week was one of those times. A company that helps us out with frozen goods, challenged our capacity last week by dropping off 6 pallets of frozen cold cuts, pasta and sauce. At the same time, several individuals and churches dropped off boxes of food. On top of this Moisson Montreal, our weekly supplier, gave us an abundance of food. We had so much stuff come in, we could not give it all away. We have stock for next week already! We gave away $17,715 worth of food this week. We were also able top share with our friends at Fonds D'Aide, another food bank serving our area. That is amazing. We are blessed. Thank you to all who contributed. Peace, K

Riders Against Hunger Update

The "Ride", took place September 15th as advertised. It was an amazing day all the way around. 32 riders took part in our 249km ride going from On Rock to Hawkesbury, St. Eugen and Coteau du Lac, mainly on small roads. It was quite a spectacle to see 32 bikes riding in formation through small towns and even on the short stretches of highway. The riders seemed to enjoy the day, ending with a bbq at the food bank and lot's of great prizes supplied by our sponsors listed on the banner in the above photo. A big thank you to all our sponsors, riders and those who helped plan and volunteered during the day. We have raised $7,750 so far. Some money continues to come in. Next year promises to bigger and better. Thank you to the Dragon Riders for supporting this event in a big way. Peace, K

Riders Against Hunger

This has been a crazy week and next week will be even crazier! The Ride is next Saturday. All of the last minute details are bombarding my brain like a scatter gun. I am really excited for this event. Hopefully it is the first of many. I am not sure how many riders will show up, but I can tell you that the prizes available to all who ride are awesome. Air anada tickets, a snow board, a tent, a $1400 watch, just to name a few. The next challenge is finding volunteers. We need a lot of help in various areas from registration, to photographing bikers. I know it will come together, it always does. If you would like to volunteer, just give me a call, we will find a place for you. If you Ride, then sign up and ride for a great cause, and the chance to win some great prizes. Peace, K

Riders Against Hunger

It has been a while since I have posted. The summer has been very busy. Food supplies started drying up in June, which means more focus on finding other resources so that we can serve our families well. I have been focusing a lot of attention on our Riders Against Hunger motorcycle ride/poker run, which takes place Sept 15th. Networking with Bikers and clubs(I love my job), designing the route and finding prizes has been non-stop. It looks like it is shaping up to be a great event. One that will make those who miss it, want to kick themselves later. This is our first year, so I am very grateful to Bill Crawford of the Eden Community Food Bank in Mississauga for helping us out with his experience and resources. We look forward to an amazing day, great riding and awesome prizes. I'll let you know how it goes.... Peace, K

We Need Pasta!

The stock from our Christmas food drives, is quickly coming to an end. This is a challenging time for food banks. The economy is such that there is more need for our services, but for the very same reasons, there are less resources. The bottom line is, WE NEED PASTA! It may sound strange, but pasta is a staple for food banks. In our case we just received several hundred containers of 4 cheese pasta sauce, but we do not have very much pasta. If we had pasta, that is a guaranteed meal for the households we serve. If you can help out, please do. When you are shopping, just pick up and few extra boxes of pasta for On Rock. Every box you donate feeds a family supper. You can drop off the pasta at On Rock or Monster Gym. Thank you. Peace, K

Great Things Happening

It is amazing to watch over time how God provides. In the past month, our Diner leadership has gone through some changes. It seemed at the start that we would struggle with continuity. In the middle of this my Dad, who is 86, suffered heart failure and several other related and unrelated conditions. I had to leave town for a week. Pete was working hard at maintaining our programs, but several "Diner" people were out of town. The diner would have to close for a week,..... or does it? Along comes Emma and Stephane and Suzanne... to put together an amazing meal and service, so that the diner could go on. These amazing friends stepped in to help out, so that our people would not go a week without the diner. We did not see this coming. They had never worked the diner before. Again, God provides. This has been a very busy year so far, with some great things going on. Starbucks partners from 9 stores pooled their resources and gave our center a makeover, including new tables, some chairs and a paint job. Thanks to all the great people from Starbucks. We partnered wit a young man who wanted to promote music shows for teens last month. The show was held at On Rock and everyone seemed to have a great time. We will continue to nurture this relationship out and encourage a young man with ambition. He has received considerable support from us and AJOI, an organization that works with youth who hang out on the streets. Denise Trimm has rallied the good people of Westview to clean out their closets and give the clothes to those in need. We are talking "good" clothes, not the stuff you are done with. Our back room is filling with clothes to be given away this weekend to our community. June 2nd is our Annual Wine Tasting fund raiser. There are still a few tickets available. Tickets are $80 each. We will be sampling the wines and food of Australia. This is always a fun night. Our next big fund raiser will be September 15th. It is called Riders Against Hunger. This is a Poker run, Motorcycle ride to raise funds for the food bank. We hope to have a lot of riders join us for this event. If you ride, contact me for more info. As you can see, things are moving. Somewhere in all our activities we need to find a clean-up day as well. We will keep you posted. Peace, K

Life in the fast lane

Life at On Rock is definitely busy these days. The food bank is now serving 165 households a week and giving out 5-10 emergency boxes. Some of the situations that come our way are just heart breaking. The son of an 84 year old man recently called us in tears. His Father is living on his own and does not have the resources left to take care of his living expenses and buy food. The son is not in a place where he can help. Imagine at the end of your life, instead of comfortably living out your life, you are starving, in the West Island!! Imagine being the son and not being able to help your Dad. We can not help but jump on this and make it right.

The Community Diner is doing well. We have introduced theme nights, so that it is not just a place to come and get fed and leave. We did St. Patty's Day, with Gillian cooking an authentic Irish Stew. We played Irish music all night. Two weeks later we did Greek Night, with Jim doing an amazing job of cooking up some Greek fare for us, and supplied the appropriate music. The people really enjoyed it and are now providing suggestions for other theme nights. I think the next will be Chinese Night.

Although this is a tough time of year for food resources, we are thankful that we are still able to depend on our Christmas collections to fill out our boxes every week. Thank God that He provides.

As we plan ahead, we have two fund raisers coming up. June 2nd is our annual wine tasting. This year we will be experiencing the wines and food of Australia. We have had several requests for the Australian experience, and it should be a lot of fun.

We also are planning a motorcycle ride called Riders Against Hunger for September 15th. This is a first, but we are hoping for a good turn out.

There is a lot going on these days and we need much wisdom in our direction and decision making. For those of you who pray, please do so for us. We need it.

Peace,

K

As the need grows....

We are almost two months into the year and it just feels like time is flying. We expected a slowdown after Christmas, but it just isn't coming. We have had to request an increase in food from Moisson Montreal and they have graciously agreed to give us more. Our list is at 160 families right now and will grow in the next month or two. Unfortunately the need for our services in the West Island is growing every month.

The Community Diner is doing well. The CD crew see about 25 people every Tuesday night. The food has been amazing thanks do Don and Ann and their volunteer cooks. It will be interesting to see what happens as the weather warms up.

We are excited to be working with our friends at AJOI. They are a group of street workers that work with youth in the West Island. They are running a program for teens out of our center once a month, doing hip-hop and graffiti(not to confused with tagging) forums.

We are committed to working with other community organizations that make a difference. As we work together, we better serve our community.

We have added two new board members. Jim Beis, is a city Councillor in Pierrefonds/Roxboro and Al Harapiak, a friend from Alberta who is trying to help us raise awareness of what we are doing here in Montreal, out in Alberta. We are thankful to have both of these guys working with us to increase our impact in this community.

Our big challenges are money and volunteer drivers. We need a few people who can deliver food boxes on Mondays. As I have said before, one of the crazy things about our work is that the need increases as the economy declines. Unfortunately donations decrease at the same time. We are working at building our profile and donor base. If you are already helping, thank you. If you are not involved, please consider partnering with us in feeding those in need in our community.

Peace,

K

Individual Canadians are giving less

The Fraser Institute has released the 2011 Generosity Index report which shows some troubling trends in Canadian philanthropy. The latest report shows a decline in both donations and donors across the country and a continued trend of lower levels of giving in Canada compared with the U.S.
One of the key benchmarks of the Generosity Index is the percentage of income donated to charity by individuals. Compared with the previous report, philanthropy declined in nearly every province and territory, with an overall rate of giving of just .64% of income. Giving varies significantly by region. Of the provinces, Manitobans were most generous, donating .89% of their income. Quebecers continue to donate the least, dropping since the previous report to .30%.

This is a reality that Charities struggle with on a daily basis, especially in Quebec. It is a constant challenge for us at On Rock as we see the need in the community grow.

Peace,

K