Representatives of Healthy Kimberley were at Purcell Golf on Monday, Sept. 23, and raised just under $500 at the final "Our Course, Your Cause" fundraiser of the year.
Healthy Kimberley board member Jo Anne Lamb said they were happy with how it went and said they were able to make some people more aware of their program.
Lamb was joined by Healthy Kimberley chairman Jeff Wilson and secretary Michelle Morrison.
"Healthy Kimberley was started with the idea to make the healthy choice the easy choice,” Lamb said. “And the idea that healthy people make a healthy community.”
Healthy Kimberley's main program is the Food Recovery Depot. Founded in 2018, it continues to be successful, creating healthy meals and diverting food away from the landfill. Since its inception, the Depot has recovered over 470,000 pounds of food and produced over 40,000 meals. It averages around 300 volunteer hours per month.
"The Depot not only saves food from the landfill, which is good for the environment, it also redistributes food to people, particularly vulnerable people, like seniors," Lamb explained.
Food that is fit to eat, but not technically fit to sell based on things like "best-before dates", is recovered from places like Save-On-Foods, the Real Canadian Superstore, Bread and Butter Bakery and the Burrito Grill, and either turned into groceries or into frozen meals to be distributed throughout the community.
While they do serve vulnerable populations like seniors, Lamb said everyone is welcome to come and get food. They open the depot to the public every Friday from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m., after all the agencies have picked up their food.
Some of the 35 agencies they serve include the Early Learning Centre, Bellies to Babies, Better at Home, the Spark Youth Centre and Home Support Nursing.
Healthy Kimberley also supports numerous projects to bolster healthy living around the community, including the outdoor basketball court at Selkirk Secondary, the Swan Avenue Adventure Park and they've also taken the Seniors Swimming in Motion program under their umbrella.
They also recently obtained an electric cargo van for their food deliveries, to decrease their carbon footprint.
This was the twelfth and final Our Course, Your Cause fundraiser of the season at Purcell Golf.
The fundraisers feature different sponsors throughout the season. At the end of the year, Cranbrook Kia donates additional funds. The course then picks one of the 12 charities to donate more money to.
Some of the other non-profits this year included the Kimberley Healthcare Auxiliary, Meant 2B Loved Pet Rescue, The Rotary Club and Wildsight.
"I think it’s just really good and a credit to the ownership for allowing us to do that, to give up the tee sheet for that length of time," said Simon Jones, Purcell's Director of Golf. "It's brilliant, I think it’s just such a worthwhile thing, everyone’s happy with it and every year it’s gaining more traction.
"Our hope is that it will continually provide a source for those people to get some more funding."
Jones said the plan is certainly to keep Our Course, Your Cause going strong next season. He encourages any interested individual or organization to apply as soon as possible to be considered for next year. You can contact Jones at simon@purcell.golf.
Jones added the course has had a great season, getting off to a strong start that carried forward throughout the year.
"It's been a great season, we got off to a flyer with Bootleg being a bit delayed," Jones said. "As soon as we opened, I think April 29 was our first sold-out day and that's just continued throughout the season. When the weather is like it is today it's just getting better and better, we haven't seen any drop off."
If you want to support Healthy Kimberley visit canadahelps.org and search for the Kimberley Wellness Foundation.
