August Volunteer Newsletter

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A Message from the Executive Director, Jill Clark

Hard to believe that we’re already half way through August, and the nights are drawing in sooner. It’s been such a crazy, busy, hectic (you choose the adjective) summer at The Gathering Place that we’re almost grateful it is coming to an end.
Many exciting things have happened this summer. For the first time, we have offered BBQ’s for our neighbours in The Garden once a month. Michelle tells me that as long as the weather holds she hopes to do at least 2 more before the end of the season. Over 160 neighbours have attended each event, and have thoroughly enjoyed being in the outdoors, talking to friends, and eating good food.
The Garden crew hosted a Garden Party on the evening of July 28^th. For $3.00 admission, 110 guests were treated to a hot dog and drink, live music and art projects on a lovely sunny (and hot) summer evening.
The Food Rescue program is doing extraordinarily well. Just this last weekend, two of our Food Rescue Volunteers (Dennis and Kathy Chippa) collected 361 lbs of food at The North Bay Farmers Market, which we can now incorporate into our meals, put up for winter, share with local food programs and hand out to our neighbours in need.
Finally, huge thanks goes out to our staff and volunteers who have struggled through days with 160+ guests, huge amounts of prep work, and heat, heat heat! We are so fortunate to have all of you.

Volunteers

We are in need of volunteers for lunch service
on the following days:

Thursday, August 20 – 3 volunteers
Friday, August 28 – 4 volunteers
Monday, August 31 – 6 volunteers
Friday, September 4 – 3 volunteers
Monday, September 7 – 4 volunteers

Meals Served in July:

In July we served 2881 lunches!

That's 125.3 lunches served per day - down from last month's
131.

902 breakfasts were given to our neighbours with 50.1 served on average per day.

Garden Party

Tuesday, July 28th, from 6pm-8pm, hosted a picnic in The Gathering Place Garden!

We enjoyed a night of beautiful weather, live music, and delicious BBQ!

Thank you to the 110 attendees for coming out and supporting The Gathering Place!

Click here to listen to Chaylene, Garden Coordinator, talk about the fun-filled event!

Food Rescue Crew

The Gathering Place is is need of volunteers for our new Food Rescue Crew. Volunteers must have access to a pick-up truck and be willing to pick up food for us from various businesses in town.

If you are interested in volunteering for this position, please contact Candice at
705-474-7687 or candice@thegatheringplacenorthbay.ca

The Community Kitchen Program

We are looking for volunteers to help out on Monday evenings from 4:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. with one of our new Community Kitchen Programs!

The Healthy Families Cook Together program is a free 12-week program that offers training to food-insecure families on how to prepare nutritious, delicious and inexpensive meals. We are looking for volunteers to assist our Community Kitchen Coordinator with weekly lessons.

The first session runs from September 14^th to November 30^th at the Pro-Cathedral (480 McIntyre St. W.). Classes are weekly (Mondays, 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.) and dinner will be provided at each class. For more information or to sign up, please contact Candice at Candice@thegatheringplacenorthbay.ca or call 705-474-7687.

A Message From The Gathering Place Garden

Our Garden is bigger than ever! Join us Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00am - 3:00pm to help us harvest, water, weed, paint boxes, and decorate our garden bed edging. Our last open day of the summer is Thursday August, 27th.

Can't join us during the day? We're offering our last evening Work Bee - Tuesday August, 18th from 6:00pm - 8:00pm. All ages, always welcome. See our Facebook page for more details!

Our garden is located at the corner of McLaren St and Algonquin Ave. Let's get growing - together.

Sometimes, a change of scenery can be a beautiful thing! On Wednesday, August, 12th, we enjoyed our lunch service from the wonderful surroundings of our Garden!

The North Bay Fruit Tree Project

The North Bay Fruit Tree Project was created by the North Bay and Area Community Garden Coalition, and is aimed to harvest fruit from private trees that would otherwise go to waste.

When a home-owner can’t keep up with the abundant harvest produced by their tree, they let the Fruit Tree Team know and they mobilize a group of volunteers to pick their crop.

The harvest is split three ways: 1/3 is offered to the home-owner, 1/3 is shared among the volunteers, and 1/3 is delivered to local food banks, and drop-in meal programs. It’s a win-win-win solution!

To sign up your tree for harvest, contact Candice@thegatheringplacenorthbay.ca or at 705-474-7687.

Volunteer Satisfaction Survey

Please help us out and let us know what you like about volunteering at The Gathering Place and how we can make your volunteer experience better. Take the Volunteer Satisfaction survey now:

http://www.thegatheringplacenorthbay.ca/Volunteer.aspx#corporate

Copyright © 2015 The Gathering Place, North Bay's Community Soup Kitchen, All rights reserved.

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