Holy Redeemer Parish
P.O. Box 1108 A2H 6T2

Communications

Message From Society of Saint Vincent de Paul

2020 has been a year to remember for the wrong reasons. COVID-19 has taken its toll on people in various ways. It also has made it sometimes difficult for the S.S.V.P. members to do the excellent charity work that they do to help the less fortunate. This is a summary of the activities that the society has been involved in for the year 2020.

This report is divided into two sections, furniture delivery to needy families, and food and hamper deliveries throughout the year to those in need.

Furniture:

Receiving and delivering furniture to the needy is a big part of SSVP activities. There were 303 visits to residences in 2020 and the volunteer hours were 567. The following is a list of furniture that has been delivered in the past year:

Item: Number of Units Delivered

Mattresses: 58
Box Springs 42
Bed Frames and Rails 31
Dressers and Mirrors 35
Sofas , Chairs and Recliners 63
T.V. Sets and Stands 24
Major Appliances, Washers, Dryers, Stoves, etc. 15
Kitchen Tables 18
Kitchen Chairs 67
Coffee Tables, End Tables, Night-stands 72
Lamps 35

As well as furniture, Groceries and other items were also given out to needy persons who requested our service.

The following is a list of activities related to the grocery deliveries:

Christmas Hampers, 120 delivered with the following costs pertaining to same:

Gift Cards from Coleman’s $ 4,902.00 Turkey’s & Chickens $ 2,090.12

Hamper bags $ 103.50 Walmart Gift Cards $ 7,000.00

Total Cost: $ 14,095.62

Mary’s Kitchen: this service was only available until the pandemic shut-down in March. It will resume operation when COVID is manageable.

Here are the figures for Mary’s Kitchen for 2020.

Adults served 396;

Children served 6,

Cost of food $4.865.40.

The volunteer hours for Mary’s Kitchen were 436.

An intricial part of our activities were the home visits.

In 2020 there were 203 home visits with 144 adults and 55 children being cared for. The cost of this activity was $ 9791.87 and the volunteer hours were 281.

The S.S.V.P. van is used to pick up groceries for the food bank on Fridays and the total hours for this service was 90.5.

Meetings, Training and Organizational activities accumulated a total of 562 hours.

We bought food for Mary’s Kitchen for a six-month period, but it was open for only three months. The remainder of the food was delivered to Mr. Wilsons store on Humber Road and he distributed the remainder of the food from his location at no cost to S.S.V.P.

2020 has been a year of great disaster and great suffering to many people. It has been a pleasure for the members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul to be a part of bringing some light to the dark world of the needy.

It has been a pleasure to witness the delight that helping the needy brings to both the recipient and the messenger. We are hoping that the pandemic will either pass or it will be feasible to live with it without too much danger. We will continue to do our best to promote the ideals of the Society and to help all who ask.

Thank you for all your support. S.S.V.P. Members. Keep Safe