A lot of love that went into co-ordinating the many volunteers who organized the holiday hampers recently that will be received by those most vulnerable in Prince George.
Stepping into the Native Friendship Centre’s Circle of Unity Room offered a glimpse of the many Elder elves who were filling boxes with perishable food items like potatoes, onions and mandarin oranges. The next phase would be taking the turkeys, eggs, bacon, and butter out of the fridges and then with a quick trip over to the Power of Friendship Hall, which was filled with canned and dry goods that would also be included in the hampers.
To make a 200-hamper project a success took the triple-threat powerhouse efforts of the Native Friendship Centre, DoorDash’s Project DASH and United Way BC’s Food Link.
“Everything you could ever think of to put a meal together is included in the hamper,” said Sarah Armstrong, marketing and communications coordinator for Northern BC United Way.
This is the first time United Way has partnered with the Native Friendship Centre for this project.
“I feel so humbled and honoured to be part of this project,” said Victoria Adowele, regional coordinator, community impact & investment for Northern BC United Way. “This is such a great project because we are putting smiles on people’s faces by delivering these hampers to those in need in the community.”
Pearl Lalond is part of the Elders group at the Friendship Centre called Kookums' Konnection, which sees a female group of elders connect with youth in the community in a meaningful way, bringing young and old together.
“We’re from the Elders group,” Lalond said, gesturing to the half dozen people in the room. “And we’re putting together all the boxes and then we’re going to do all the produce and stuff.”
Lalond has been volunteering with Kookum’s Konnection as an Elder for the last 15 years and has been involved with the Native Friendship Centre since she was about 14 years old.
A lot of history.
“The hampers are so important,” Lalond said. “I like it that they have enough food for the whole day – they’ll get bacon, eggs, milk, bread so they can have a nice breakfast and then still have enough for dinner – so it’s everything for the day - because nobody should be without a nice Christmas dinner.”
And the first and the last step involved those delivering the food to the Friendship Centre for hamper assembly and then the next day delivering the hampers to bring Christmas cheer to those in need.
Danielle Cody of Red Spade Enterprises, a Prince George delivery company, was so inspired when she delivered the food to the Native Friendship Centre and saw all the effort being made by young and old, she announced she would donate delivery efforts for the hamper project.
“It’s thanks to Danielle and Red Spade that we have everything in here,” Armstrong said.
“I am just a small cog in the wheel,” Cody laughed as she gestured to all the activity at the Friendship Centre. “When I saw the scope of what’s going on here – the total number of hampers and all the food – and there’s so many volunteers around here chipping in, it just doesn’t make sense to me to put money in my pocket when I could be contributing back to the community. It’s a much better way to do things.”
