Good evening everyone. My name is Crystle Avery. It is my pleasure as the Executive Director of Chalmers Community Services Centre to report back to you and thank the 100 Women Who Care for your incredible support.
After being chosen as your charity in April, 176 members supported this choice. We are extremely grateful to all of you. This very generous support comes at a time when the needs in our community are growing by the month. As folks in Guelph feel the impact of these uncertain economic times, the number of guests accessing our services at Chalmers is also increasing. We have seen this both in our three weekly food pantries and in our cafés.
As the demand for food increases, thanks to all of you, we are now in a much better position to order more food which we have already started doing. Last Thursday at our west location, we served 231 food baskets. This was a record for us for one day. As the lineups grow longer, Chalmers is committed to ensuring that no guest or family leaves without a complete food basket. More and more families are turning to us for help and we must be there for them.
Your generous support is helping us meet the needs of these guests. We are ordering more food and have expanded our food pantry distribution. Thanks to you, we have put oranges, eggplant and cheese permanently back on the food line. Our guests are thrilled that they once again have these healthy options to feed to their families. I often hear exclamations of delight as our guests go down the food line and see the amazing choices. They are incredibly grateful. And so are we.
Our Monday and Tuesday cafes downtown are also seeing increased numbers of guests walking in the door. A typical café morning would normally see 25-30 guests. Two weeks ago, we had 54 guests on a Tuesday morning! Our volunteers couldn’t believe how many folks there were. One of the guests commented that he had not eaten since the previous Saturday. We were very shocked by this and worked hard to make sure that he left with food that he could eat. Many of our café guests experience housing insecurity as well, so thanks to your support we are able to purchase more packaged food that does not require cooking for these folks.
This trend of growing numbers seems to be continuing. Last week we had 43 guests on Tuesday. Remember an average morning would see 25-30 guests in the door. These increased numbers are a signal to us that more and more folks are struggling with food insecurity. Your donation has made it possible for us to increase the food that we provide during these cafes. Both in choice and in volume. Our cafe guests are so grateful that they have a place to go where they can have hot coffee, fresh pastries, breakfast and a sense of community. And our volunteers are very grateful as well. We all find it very hard to turn guests away due to lack of food. Your donations are ensuring that we do not have to do this.
In conclusion, every dollar that you have donated is being spent on food. It is ensuring that we will not have to turn guests away and children will be fed. Thanks to you we now have cheese, oranges, and eggplant on the food line again. Thanks to you, we are able to purchase more food to meet the increased demand. Together, we are providing folks in Guelph with a safety net in these very turbulent times. As our community of Guelph struggles with higher unemployment and higher prices, Chalmers is committed to being ready to help them get through this. And the donations from the 100 Women who Care are ensuring that we can respond to the needs of thousands of guests and their children. Together, we are making a tremendous difference. Together we are showing that we care! On behalf of our guests, we say thank you to the 100 Women Who Care. We are very grateful for your support! Thank you for supporting Chalmers.