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Donor Celebration!

Guelph cares! 

We are so fortunate to be part of such a generous and giving community. This week we celebrate two special donors who engaged their communities in offering us hand up through collective food drives.

We asked them to share a little about how the drives got started and why they decided to help HOPE House.
Here are their stories of what HOPE House means to them. 

Dominique O'Rourke: Cereal Queen

I usually buy a few extra items on every grocery run to donate. During the lock-down, I read that HOPE House needed cereal and liked the thought of providing a good start to the day for a local family. As the Mom of two teens, I know how quickly we can go through cereal. Since my birthday was coming up I put out a call on social media asking people to donate a box to HOPE House, Chalmers or the Guelph Food Bank. For less than the price of a birthday card or a bottle of wine, people can buy a box or two of cereal to donate. The response was really great. More than 100 people liked or commented. People from all over Canada donated carbs or cash to a local organization. Some even sent me pictures. I’m thinking next year of hosting a brunch and everyone can come in their pjs with their box of cereal so we can stock your pantry.

I chose HOPE House because I’ve been there many times: Women of Distinction Soup Sisters event, a clothing exchange, Coldest Night of the Year. I like that you collaborate with other food security organizations. I like the dignity you offer by having people choose their own items. Bob Moore even gave me a tour the second time I dropped off a donation and I heard about all the support from local business. It really is a place of hope and connection. We need lots of that right now.

Dominique O'Rourke
Here is me on my third HOPE House cereal run in 6 weeks. It was nice to chat with people who dropped them off at my home.
This is Annabelle with her donation.
This is my friend Lisa with her children and this sweet birthday card.

Emmanuel Canadian Reformed Church:
Helpers Extraordinaire!

A number of years ago Emmanuel Canadian Reformed Church was involved with the Christmas Hamper program through Lakeside Church. As a natural progression of our support, our church started donating to the HOPE House Food Market approximately 2 years ago once every two months. We felt this was something our congregation could do to help our community in a tangible way.

When the COVID-19 virus started shutting everything down we recognized that this was going to cause additional hardship on many families in our community. In an effort to help as much as we could, with all the limitations in place, we felt that increasing our food drive contributions was a good way to maintain physical distancing measures and yet give to the community the help that would be needed.

We very much appreciate and support the efforts of Lakeside HOPE House to help the most vulnerable citizens and families in our community. We are thankful that HOPE House sees that all people are created in the image of God. They value all people and have compassion for the right reasons. We recognize that HOPE House wants to show the love of Christ, just as we do. In addition, HOPE House had the capacity, programing, and infrastructure to do this work in ways that our church is not able to at this time. Since there is no need to reinvent the wheel, so to speak, we feel that Lakeside HOPE House is an organization we can support and encourage.

We pray that God continues to bless the work of Lakeside HOPE House and the other organizations that contribute to this work as well.

On behalf of Emmanuel Canadian Reformed Church,
Marina Rietema
(Local Mission Committee member)

MOST NEEDED ITEMS

You can offer a hand up by donating the following needed items
to the Food Market to be distributed by delivery to registered
HOPE House community members. 

boxed cereals
tomato sauces
beans, lentils, kidneys
shampoo and conditioner
toothpaste

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Copyright © 2018 Lakeside HOPE House, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
10 Cork Street East, Guelph, ON N1H 2W8

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