The Surrey Food Bank feeds 15,000 people per month and sadly 41% of them are children and babies. Sorting and distributing essential groceries to this vast number of people requires many volunteers. The team at Sutton – Premier Realty regularly help out on the front lines at the food bank. Every two months, a group of 10 REALTORS® commit to a four-hour shift starting in the morning. For the past year, Ron Clauzel has taken on the responsibility of facilitating this project for his office.
Ron (pictured above with Anh Son) is pleased to note that recruiting his colleagues is very easy. “I usually have more volunteers than I need. Sometimes REALTORS® will bring one of their children with them as part of the school volunteering program. We always find it very rewarding and all of us, including the kids, have a lot of fun doing it.”
“We mostly work on the front lines where we give out food to people who have been pre-screened by the food bank staff,” says Ron. “The 10 of us stand at separate stations and give out food that has been donated to the food bank by the public and major stores and suppliers. It could be bags of flour to sugar, to cabbages, to soft drinks, to cans of soup, to potatoes, to bread. We just never know what is on the menu for that day.”
“During the course of those four hours, we see people from all walks of life who are in need and we are happy to help. It is a very rewarding four hours.”
“It is the Sutton – Premier Realty way to give something back to the community where we work and live.”
The team holds food drives and, each Christmas, they sponsor families and provide baskets of food and gifts. As a non-profit, charitable organization, the Surrey Food Bank is only able to operate with donations such as those from Sutton – Premier Realty.
According to their website, the Surrey Food Bank generally provides just three to four days worth of food in a 14-day period. Although not enough to live on, it frees up dollars in meagre budgets for other living expenses such as transportation, clothing and children’s extra school costs.
