Crazy, Amazing and a Little Scary...

To say that a lot has gone on since my last blog would be an understatement.  There are 3 major changes that we are thrilled with. 

First, We now have a gas stove and fryer in our kitchen.  Due to a generous donor we have converted our kitchen to gas.  For those of you who have experienced cooking with gas, it is an amazing upgrade. 

Second, The amazing truck you see in the picture above, is ours.  It was donated to us by Hockey Helps the Homeless, and the graphics were donated by Pazazz Printing.  This means, no more beloved green bus.  With the food supplies we have been receiving, the green bus was becoming very impractical. 

And last but not least, we have now expanded our space, officially, to 9,000 sq. feet.  We were unofficially using 4,000 that the landlord couldn't rent.  In the last year we grew to the point where we couldn't live without it.  In the last month, he found a renter, but wanted to give us first shot at it.  After much discussion we arrived at an amazing deal, that only adds $2000 a month to our rent.  We are very happy that we no longer live under the cloud of "will he rent it?"  This does create other challenges, like raising the funds to pay for it.  We are trusting that this will work out. 

We are now serving between 185 & 200 families every week.  Sometimes I wonder how we got here.  It is daunting and yet also very exciting to see that we can make a difference in people's lives by showing them love, through the very practical act of providing food.

Thank you to all who serve here, whether in action or with financial support.  We could not make a difference without you.

Peace,

K

$25X500 Challenge

 Check out the story in The Montreal Times last week.  Help us to continue making a difference by getting involved in the $25X500 Challenge 

Cooking With Gas!

We were blessed with donations of a commercial gas stove and a brand new french fry vat.  We were further blessed with a donation to cover the cost of having gas installed in our facility and equipment hook up. The plumber is in today giving us our gas feed.  Two more steps and we are cooking with gas. This means we can more efficiently serve our friends who frequent the diner and allows us to expand our services.  We are excited about these very important additions and our diner staff are thrilled as well.  Thank you to those who have contributed to our work in this community.  We could not do this without our volunteers and those who give financially to ORCS.

CTV and other news

CTV News came in a few weeks back and did a story for their Power Of One segment for the Sunday News.  I must say, we could not have asked for a better piece on our work.  A big Thank you to Maya Johnson. Check it out here:  http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=914983&playlistId=1.1257924&binId=1.815

In other news, today Biotek is here retrofitting all of our refrigeration units with new DC motors.  This will save us a ton of money on our electric bill.  John & Linda at Biotek have become awesome supporters of our work and we appreciate it very much.

We continue to struggle financially.  We really do need people who will invest in this work on a monthly basis.  If you can help, please contact me.  Our Office Administrator and I have not been paid since January.  We cannot continue this way.

Please keep us in prayer.

Peace,

K

Lots Going On

I have not blogged since December 4th!  That is crazy.  Life has been so busy.  We spent much of November and December gearing up for the Christmas delivery for our families.  The Christmas boxes were amazing again this year.  We had about 35 volunteers here putting the boxes together and delivering.  Once again the Pierrefonds Police department helped.  It is always fun to have them involved in serving the community this way.

As soon as the Christmas food drive was over we jumped into high gear on the Coldest Night of the Year, a walk-a-thon in the middle of February.  We did this in partnership with Blue Sea Philanthropy in Toronto.  Our Goal was to raise $25,000.  A lofty goal, we thought.  In the end with 22 teams and about 120 walkers, we raised $32,000!  It was a lot of fun for all involved, as a sea of yellow tuques marched through the community.

We are now gearing up for our Wine tasting, which takes place June 1.  We are also starting a fund raising campaign to find 500 people who will donate $20 a month to help serve the poor in our community on a regular basis.  We need to develop a solid financial base in order to guarantee our long term service to the poor in our community.  We are serving 170+ households in our community totaling about 600 people.  This is a big responsibility, and we take it very seriously.  If you are not involved in supporting us, please consider partnering with us.  You can contact me at kim@onrock.org.

Peace,

K

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