In 2018, The Gift of Good Food raised the most funds we ever have!

›› Kathryn Juricic & Mila Czemerys

Another six weeks of Gift of Good Food fundraising has come and gone and we have amazing news to share. Together, we raised $88,179, supporting 176 families throughout the region! We surpassed our goal of $80,000 and we are so grateful to our donors and supporters who have been overwhelmingly generous.

Once the fundraising is over and the craziness of the holidays gets turned all too fast into the New Year, we certainly have our work cut out for us. Coming back to work after the holidays is made easy when your job is to let people know they’re ­getting fresh fruits and veggies for themselves and their children the rest of the year.

We have organized the delivery of ­hundreds of Good Food Boxes through our sixteen partner organizations that choose families. I’m happy to report that the first week of Good Food Boxes have been delivered throughout Greater Victoria to hundreds of grateful recipients. They’ll be visiting their local community centres every other week for the rest of the year and leaving with a big bag of vegetables.

With that in mind, we’d like to send our gratitude to Gift of Good Food donors and supporters. 581 donations came through our website and the Fernwood Community Centre in six weeks to make this a success. You are all amazing!

Local business who take this fundraiser on as their own include Ashtanga Yoga, Benji’s Pub Quiz and Northern Quarter, Discovery Coffee, The Fernwood Yoga Den, Hoyne Brewing, Luna Collective, Orca Book Publishers, and REALFOTO.

This year, we had twenty-two Gift of Good Food fundraising teams, who got together with friends, their colleagues and family and together raised over $20,000 for the cause.

There were tons of volunteers and friends who became the glue that held all the ­moving parts, thank you for showing up.

Thanks to our creative team who made this year’s fundraising video and song, and all the cuties who were featured, our video was viewed over 4,000 times! It takes skill to film vegetables flying in slow motion—let us tell you.

It’s all exhausting and exhilarating and we are grateful to be a part of something that makes a difference with all of you. It is worth it every time.