By Pepper Parr
December 10th, 2020
BURLINGTON, ON
When the plans that worked wonderfully in the past can’t be used this year – what do you do?
You pivot and get creative.
The Gift of Giving Back, one of the most effective programs for collecting food and involving young people in the process – had ten years of success behind them. They were looking forward to another year – when BAM – COVID hit the world and everything was turned upside down.
Jean Longfield and her team at The Gift knew that food was going to be needed even more this year – they also knew that the food drives that has tonnes of food arriving at a selected high school in the city wasn’t going to be possible.
Volunteers are the backbone of the people that have in the past collected tonnes of food. Above, a volunteer digs out a blue bag while the woman on the right stands by waiting to weigh the food that arrives.
They needed to find a place that was easy to get to – storage space would be nice but they could get by with just enough space to hold what came in each day.
Burlington Centre came through for them. (Have you noticed how often Burlington Centre has come through for those groups that are out there helping the community?)
The Gift people put together a program that would stretch out for several weeks and placed an order for hundreds of those iconic blue bags that get dropped off at houses throughout the city. People are asked to fill the bags and drop them off at the Burlington Centre.
So far it is working – there is the odd hiccup – but they seem to be able to overcome the small problems.
Hours of operation are set out below. If you don’t have a blue bag – put what you want to give in a box and drop it off.
Best entrance to the Centre to get to the Gift of Giving Back is the main entrance on the Guelph Line side – lots of parking.
Walk in through the main doors – turn right when you get to the elevator and walk 50 yards or so – you can’t miss the place.
Be generous – there are a lot of people out there hurting about now.
