We are pleased to announce that the Tim Hortons Store Owners of Mississauga will be the Platinum Sponsors of the 2010 Gala!

Tickets are sold out!

Our 2010 Gala is coming up on Thursday, April 8, 2010 at The Mississauga Grand Banquet and Convention Centre. This year’s theme is “A Night in the Tropics” and we’re looking forward to a tropical evening featuring the sights, sounds and flavours of the Caribbean!

Those who have attended in previous years know it is an evening full of amazing entertainment, delicious food and cocktails, and an exciting silent auction. It is always a fabulous evening, and over the past three years, has raised over $180,000.

Cocktails 6:00pm | Dinner 7:00pm

Click here to view the PDF invitation.

To see photos from the 2009 Gala, please visit our Photo Gallery.

The U.N. announced that over one billion people globally are now facing severe food insecurity. Since the Canadian labour market peaked in October 2008, Ontario welfare caseloads have hit a nine-year high with dire warnings of long-term chronic unemployment and depleted EI benefits. Yet, many politicians and economists have declared an end to this recession. However, based on the 20% increase in need for food that we witnessed and the look of despair on our clients’ faces, this declaration is premature.

Food banks and similar front-line social agencies have been hit especially hard. The Ontario Association of Food Banks has reported significant operating challenges among its food bank members including declining food donations, diminishing financial support often resulting in reduced operating hours or closures, and increasing demand for services. This is the environment in which we find ourselves and the on-going challenges we face.

The staff and volunteers of The Mississauga Food Bank have risen to these challenging times and have worked especially hard this past year fulfilling our mission of positively impacting the lives of those who are hungry in our community by effectively sourcing, managing, and distributing food.

The Mississauga Food Bank was very successful last year rebranding itself, raising required funds, and sourcing and distributing a record amount of food. In addition, prudent investments were made in new staff, infrastructure improvements, and initiatives to help raise community awareness of the unacceptable levels of poverty/hunger here in Mississauga.

I am pleased to report that The Mississauga Food Bank is solidly positioned to continue meeting the growing needs of its member agencies and clients and I am honoured to serve as your Executive Director.

I look forward to another successful year working together towards the achievement of our strategic priorities and mission.

Client Story

Kim never imagined she would need to rely on a food bank to meet her family’s needs each month. Two years ago, she and her husband, along with their two teenage sons, lived in relative comfort in their Mississauga home. When their marriage broke down, and financial problems ensued, Kim found herself responsible for all of their financial needs on one income.

Even though she works full-time in an office, her salary only covers her mortgage payments and utilities, not leaving enough money to pay for food. Her oldest son has been looking for work for months to help with the family’s expenses, but as they don’t have extra money for transportation, he has to find a job within walking distance of their house, and so far has been unsuccessful in his search. Kim’s younger son has some learning disabilities and needs her help with homework, thus making it impossible for her to take a second job to make ends meet.

Approximately 8 months ago, Kim came to The Mississauga Food Bank for the first time. “I was nervous to go to a food bank,” she said, “as I didn’t know what I would expect there. But I found that the staff were compassionate and helpful, and treated me with respect.”

Kim now comes to The Mississauga Food Bank every two weeks to receive 7-10 days of nutritious food, and her eldest son has learned to make the food she receives stretch to last the full two weeks between visits. “Without The Mississauga Food Bank, I don’t know how we’d be getting by,” says Kim, “We wouldn’t still be in our home if it weren’t for the food bank.”

Kim is now volunteering on Wednesday nights to give back to others who find themselves in the same situation as her family.

Provide a family like Kim’s with food and hope
For every $1 you donate to The Mississauga Food Bank, $10 of food is collected, cleaned, sorted and distributed to families like Kim’s. You can make a difference in your community by feeding your hungry neighbours. By making a donation today, you are helping to alleviate hunger here in Mississauga. Help show your neighbours that even in these tough economic times, there are truly people who want to fight hunger and feed hope.

Please click here to make your online donation and receive a tax receipt by email immediately.
You can also give online by clicking the ‘Donate Now’ button on the front page of www.themississaugafoodbank.org.

Featured Program – Volunteer Management
The Mississauga Food Bank operates a variety of programs as a part of our mandate to positively impact the lives of those who are hungry by effectively sourcing, managing and distributing food. One of these programs is our volunteer management program.

Each month, we source, warehouse, and distribute food valued at over $6M per year to over 12,000 clients. Food is sourced through corporate and individual donations, sponsorships, and through collaboration with the Ontario Association of Food Banks. The food is then picked up and transported to The Mississauga Food Bank, where is it inventoried, sorted and stored before it is delivered to clients and member agencies within the community.

Much of this work is performed by volunteers. In 2009, The Mississauga Food Bank volunteers logged over 26,000 hours! From high school students seeking hours to graduate, to developmentally challenged adults, to those mandated to volunteer by the court system, the volunteers at The Mississauga Food Bank are as diverse as the clients.

Funding for the volunteer management program helps us to build an effective infrastructure and supporting management systems so that volunteers can carry out key organizational tasks.

The volunteer management program includes the following activities:

• Staff – To oversee recruitment, training, management and recognition of volunteers
• Phones – Maintenance of and fees for the phone system, allowing contact with volunteers
• Website – Development of website to serve as a volunteer recruitment tool and awareness-raising medium
• Database – Development and maintenance of an online volunteer database
• Materials – T-shirts, name tags and smocks for volunteers
• Appreciation – Costs for thanking volunteers (events, token gifts, thank you notes, etc.)

The total cost associated with the volunteer management program for 12 months is $71,200.

For more information on how to financially support the volunteer management program, please contact Meghan Nicholls, Director of Marketing & Fund Development at 905.270.5589 x226 or meghan@themississaugafoodbank.org.

New Truck!
Thanks to the generosity of 3 of our great supporters, BDO Canada LLP, EMD Serono, and the Community Foundation of Mississauga, The Mississauga Food Bank has been able to purchase a second, smaller refrigerated truck! This truck will enable us to do smaller pickups and deliveries more affordably, and increases our ability to collect and distribute food during busy times of year. Plus it is small enough that anyone with a G class license can drive it, so it is an effective tool for us as we work to feed the hungry in Mississauga.

Watch for it on the roads and at community events across Mississauga!

Upcoming Events

The Mississauga Food Bank Spring Food Drive
March 18 – April 8
From companies organizing internal food drives, individuals dropping off non-perishables at their local fire hall or grocery store, and religious groups having a collection barrel in their foyer, this is a great way for the Mississauga community to come together to ensure their neighbours don’t go hungry this Spring, as the food from this drive carries The Mississauga Food Bank through the summer. Watch for our logo in your community and donate!
Our goal for this year is 60,000 lbs of food and $60,000 raised!

We need volunteers to help sort all the food that comes in on Friday, April 2nd, Saturday, April 3rd, and Sunday, April 4th. To register as a volunteer (MANDATORY) or find information on how to run a food drive or what items are most needed, please visit www.mississaugafooddrive.org.

Greater Toronto Apartment Association
Spring Hope Apartment & Condo Food Drive
For the fourth year in a row, and after winning the Guinness World Record for largest one-day food drive in 2008, the Greater Toronto Apartments Association is once again launching the Spring Hope Food Drive.

Rental and condominium buildings across the Greater Toronto Area will be raising food on Tuesday, April 13th to feed their hungry neighbours. 150,000 lbs were raised last year! Let’s see if we can exceed that goal! If you live in an apartment or condominium building, speak to your superintendent today about getting involved!

For more information, visit www.springhopefooddrive.ca.

Staff Changes
In February, we said goodbye to Khush Patel, who has been working part-time as a Client Intake Worker. She will be graduating from the University of Toronto, and heading out to spend the next year travelling and volunteering around the world. We wish you all the best Khush!

On January 26th, we were pleased to welcome Jennifer Paratholil to our team as our new full-time Office Administrator. Jennifer comes to us with over 10 years of administration experience, and has started her BIG task of getting us better organized! She will be responsible for all of our reception, database management and some finance functions. Jennifer can be reached at 905.270.5589 x222 or jennifer@themississaugafoodbank.org. Feel free to drop her a line to say hello!

2010 Gala
We would like to invite you to join us for our 2010 Gala on Thursday, April 8, 2010 at The Mississauga Grand Banquet and Convention Centre. This year’s theme is “A Night in the Tropics” and we’re looking forward to a tropical evening featuring the sights, sounds and flavours of the Caribbean!

Those who have attended in previous years know it is an evening full of amazing entertainment, delicious food and cocktails, and an exciting silent auction. It is always a fabulous evening, and over the past three years, has raised over $180,000.

If you’re not able to attend, you can still help this event be a success by donating items for our Silent Auction that are new, and valued at over $25.

Tickets are $250 each or $2500 for a table of 10. They’re selling fast, so please contact Meghan to purchase your tickets today at meghan@themississaugafoodbank.org or 905.270.5589 x226.

The Spring Food Drive is coming up from March 18-April 9. Check out www.mississaugafooddrive.org for all the new information!

It will tell you how to register and let us know that your company or group is raising food and much more!

• Port Credit Waterfront Festival – June 18-20
• Paint the town Red – Canada Day in Port Credit – July 1
• Southside Shuffle Jazz Festival – September 10-12

If you’re interested in volunteering with us at any of these events, please email info@themississaugafoodbank.org or call us at 905.270.5589.

Today I came across a tweet from Edmonton’s Food Bank with a link to a blog called The Working Poor Diet. It’s an initiative they’ve started inviting people to try out how it is to live on the $80 a month most working poor have to spend on food, while still trying to meet their nutritional needs. The goal of this initiative is to get people to make donations to Edmonton’s Food Bank in honour of the participants who are living on this diet for the month of February.

It was interesting to read more about the kind of choices the participant is making – does she buy meat, or does she fill up on carbohydrates like rice and potatoes?

I highly recommend following this blog for the month of February – it will give you some great insight to the type of challenges our clients at The Mississauga Food Bank face every day.

http://theworkingpoordiet.blogspot.com/

Over the years, this food drive has become the largest door-to-door food drive in the country and food banks rely heavily on our participation to meet their targets.

This year the Greater Toronto Apartment Association has set up a website for the Spring H.O.P.E. Food Drive at www.springhopefooddrive.ca. The idea is to give residents and landlords an opportunity to make an on-line donation which will go directly to the food banks and we hope that landlords will be generous in matching any donations their residents make on-line.

While an alternate means for people to participate in this worthy cause has been provided, we still want to encourage landlords to sign up their buildings and participate in the door-to-door canvas. If we can’t give people seriously affected by the recession free rent, we can at least offer them a free meal. Food and shelter are basic necessities. Maybe if we help provide one, it will help our residents to pay for the other.

These are tough times for a lot of people. We need to remain strong and dedicated to the cause in order to keep these invaluable resources available.

So here’s what you can do:
* Please sign up your buildings.
* Please coordinate volunteers for the night of the food drive.
* Please give generously!

WHO: ALL of The Mississauga Food Bank volunteers

WHAT: A morning of refreshing our knowledge of The Mississauga Food Bank policies and procedures, learning about the new volunteer sign-in system and scheduling process, and hearing some updates on things to come!

WHEN: Saturday, February 27th
9:30am Coffee & Registration
10:00am-12:00pm Training

WHERE: The Mississauga Food Bank
36-2550 Goldenridge Road, Mississauga

WHY: Because the food bank couldn’t operate without volunteers, and we want to make sure our volunteers are equipped to serve our clients!

RSVP: Khush – info@themississaugafoodbank.org or 905.270.5589 x100 by February 19th.

See you there!

Go to www.charitycars.ca today to learn more!

Meghan Nicholls
Director of Marketing & Fund Development

The following is taken from the Do The Math website:

Poverty in Ontario is at an all time high. As the economic crisis grows, so does the number of people relying on social assistance and food banks.

Does a single person on social assistance receive enough income to live with health and dignity? Do The Math to find out!

Join The Stop Community Food Centre and the campaign to Put Food in the Budget and help us reduce poverty.

Start by taking the survey and Do the Math. What would you need to make ends meet if your situation changed and you had to rely on social assistance? If you were a single person on social assistance, what would you need?

Would you have to move? How much do you need for rent and groceries? Is a telephone or internet connection a necessary expense? What about a cup of coffee or having a friend over for dinner? Do the Math and compare your results to what single people on social assistance receive each month.

If you are convinced that social assistance is inadequate to live with health and dignity, you will have a chance to make your voice heard.

Do The Math: http://www.dothemath.thestop.org

~~

We are always so pleased when groups of people raise food on our behalf. Over the last 23 years, The Mississauga Food Bank has received almost 100% of our food by donations from corporations and the general public. It’s great to see neighbours helping neighbours!

A great story came across my desk that I thought I’d share with you. The Mississauga Senators Minor Atom AAA Hockey Team decided to do a food drive on our behalf and came up with a fantastic goal – the total body weight of all their players! So their goal is 1036 lbs of food, and we can’t wait to see if they beat their goal!

Players will be out collecting non-perishable food items this Saturday, so if a Senators hockey player knocks on your door asking for food, help him bring in his body weight in food!

We will post a photo as soon as we have them, and let you know the total amount of food raised. Thanks Senators!!

-Meghan Nicholls, Director of Marketing & Fund Development