One notable comment, which came with a $500 donation: “At our ages, 91 and 87, we are very fortunate. We’re making this donation to help the many needy people during this dreadful pandemic.” The campaign has been pushed ahead by match challenges, including 10 by Andrew Beckerman, as well as large donations from local residents, businesses and organizations such as the Victoria Foundation. By the end of business on Tuesday, we had received about 3,800 individual contributions. The money will be used to help local organizations help people in need. The fund is run by a charitable society, which will strive to draw lasting impact from this money, change that will help our extended community in the cold, rainy months of January and February.
In the past couple of days we have seen increased donations from north of the Malahat, which might have been prompted by the list of organizations we are helping that we published in the Sunday Times Colonist. With the high level of donations this year, we have extended the fund’s reach across Vancouver Island more than ever before. We are doing our best to provide help in as many communities as we can. The list includes the Mustard Seed Street Church, the Salvation Army in Victoria, the Goldstream Food Bank, the Sooke Food Bank, the Saanich Peninsula Food Bank, the Victoria Women’s Transition House, and the Vancouver Island Counselling Centre for Immigrants and Refugees.
“The demographic has changed,” Waite said. “We’re seeing working people, mainly servers.” The pandemic has been brutal on the hospitality sector. “People come in here crying because they’ve never been in a food bank before and don’t know the process.” Yes, well, we’ve heard a lot of that this year, not just from CMS it stands for Cobble Hill, Mill Bay and Shawnigan Lake but from food banks in Sooke, Nanaimo, Duncan, the West Shore, the Saanich Peninsula, the Comox Valley… The good news? All of them, along with the Salvation Army, Mustard Seed Street Church, Victoria Women’s Transition House and a dozen other agencies from Campbell River to Mayne Island, just shared a quarter million bucks that dropped in their laps, unexpectedly, courtesy of the Times Colonist Christmas Fund last week.