Thanks to the Neighbourhood Small Grants program, we raised nearly $600 at our “Pack the Pantry” event for the Lake Country Community Fridge!
We had a table at the entrance of a local Christmas craft fair where we collected non-perishable food donations and sold coffee, hot chocolate, cookies and draw tickets to win 1 of 3 prize packs valued at $80 each.
Since the event was 7 hours long, we split it up into several “shifts” and over the course of the day, a total of 4 volunteers took turns managing the table.
Our local Tim Horton’s sponsored the event by providing us with 2 huge urns of coffee and hot chocolate. They also provided disposable cups, lids, creamer and sugar. We used to grant money to purchase:
-50 cookies at cost from a local coffee shop
-50 cookies from Costco
-3 gift baskets from local shops (support local!), a couple of which gave us a small discount
-gift cards for volunteers to thank them for their help
Coffee, hot chocolate and Costco cookies were $2 each, while the gourmet coffee shop cookies were $3 each. Draw tickets were $2 each or 3 for $5.
We estimate that we received ~$220 from draw ticket sales, ~$165 from cookie sales and ~$210 from coffee, hot chocolate and general donations.
We learned that small effort has big impact! Not only did we raise money, we also put smiles on faces and spread the word about how the Lake Country Community Fridge benefits the community. We found that selling beverages and goodies brought people to us, who may have walked right by our table if we were just set up for informational purposes.
We are grateful for the opportunity to have participated in this grant!
Project Leader: Jackie Goode
{Post Image:11}
