The Oakville Rangers Hockey Club (ORHC) will be running a Gift of Giving Back Food Drive again this year, hoping to exceed their 2022 efforts of collecting over 120,000 pounds of food for several Oakville organizations.
The Gift of Giving Back Food Drive is all about Kids Feeding Kids. Founded in 2005, "The Gift of Giving Back" is the largest community food drive that is held across Canada. Collection for the ORHC drive begins this week.
The food drive offers an opportunity to "inspire, support, educate and empower children" through local minor athletics associations and school systems, to compassionately give back to our community, meaning it's not just a food drive!
It was founded on the following four principles:
- To encourage compassion in our young people for those in need or in crisis.
- To connect them to the hard-working agencies which support the vulnerable in our communities and also to our larger community institutions.
- To inspire our kids to lift other kids up through their own work and actions, and -To motivate them and their families to embrace community traditions of volunteerism.
So many in our Oakville community are struggling with making ends meet - and the kids growing up in these families are suffering with many societal issues - poverty, hunger, lack of housing, illness and more. These issues affect all of us.
Last year, the ORHC collected 122,000 pounds of food - an amazing accomplishment. ORHC says they are "excited to be involved in this important campaign once again this year" and are hoping to exceed their 2022 goal.
Over 85 teams have collected food from neighbours, at hockey games and throughout the community. All food and financial donations collected will be distributed to multiple local organizations, such as:
- Kerr Street Mission
- The Salvation Army
- Halton Women’s Place
- Food for Life
- The Compassion Society
- ROCK (Reach Out Centre for Kids)
Food drop-off locally begins Tuesday, Dec. 5 to Thursday, Dec. 7th at St. Thomas Aquinas High School!
ORHC is thankful for all the volunteers, teachers, students and players that have helped to make this campaign a success. The team says they, "are so excited to see all the food collected!"
