Keep the Lights on at the Red Cedar Café

Red Cedar Cafe is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

Six months, 30,000 meals – and more to do!
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On Easter Weekend in April 2020, we activated our not-for-profit Community Meal Program in response
to the pandemic – opening our doors at a time when most social services and food establishments were
closing. Since then, we've grown from an ad hoc group of hospitality industry professionals and community leaders into an organization with more than 500 volunteers and partnerships with dozens of local businesses and community organizations.
We've scaled up from 100 meals that first weekend to nearly 3000 meals a week – including 1500 hot meals
for unhoused community members and another 1200+ tasty frozen meals for other people in need – supporting 500 households across the region, prepared and delivered with love and compassion by our volunteer kitchen and distribution teams, in partnership with the Living and Lived Experience of Homelessness Network, the Quadra Village Community Centre, the Downtown Community Centre, the Oaklands Community Centre, the Fairfield Gonzales Community Association and the Shelbourne Community
Kitchen.

We've fueled these operations with volunteer labour, food donations from local suppliers, and generous
financial contributions from Khalsa Aid Canada, the City of Victoria and individual donors. Now, we are calling on the community to step up in a major way by contributing funds to sustain our operations for the next 6 months. We need to raise $50 000 to keep this vital community service going – operating costs for the purchase of raw ingredients, packaging and cleaning supplies; utilities and other facility costs; and labour costs for leadership positionsin cooking and distribution to support our volunteer teams.
The extraordinary circumstances of Covid-19 will continue through the winter, including social isolation
and economic hardship for many low-income people, seniors and people with disabilities. We will continue to meet community needs with your support.

The fundraising goal covers expenses at our facility at 1900 Douglas (old Paul's Motor Inn); healthy ingredients to supplement donated food; and bare-bones labour costs for supervisory positions relating to cooking and distribution. Contributions have the following impact:

$50 - healthy ingredients to supplement donated food for 10 meals
$100 - personal protective equipment and cleaning supplies for two weeks
$500 - compensation for kitchen supervision to produce 1,000 meals

Healthy meals are prepared and distributed to seniors, people in self-isolation, the unhoused and other community members in need. This includes residents of social housing operated by BC Housing, the Victoria Cool Aid Society, Pacifica Housing and the Portland Hotel Society, buoyed by referrals from agencies including the Vancouver Island Health Authority and Esquimalt First Nation.

Please contribute what you can to help the Red Cedar Café meet its fundraising goal and continue serving people in need, and please share this fundraising campaign widely with people in your networks. Thank you for your support!