The homeless population of Ottawa will soon be receiving more food, resources and supplies after funds raised at a luncheon on May 10 are donated to three different organizations working to address homelessness in the city.
The luncheon is being organized by a group of friends, all of whom are volunteering their time on evenings and weekends to put on the event, to be held at the Chu Shing restaurant in Chinatown.
“I was the guy stirring the pot a little bit,” says Chris Henderson, co-founder of environmental consulting firm Delphi Group, who came up with the idea for the fundraiser. “It started for me because I was aware of the homeless issues in our city, and I wanted to see what I could do to change that.”
Each table at the luncheon will feature one special guest, such as a person who works with the homeless, or even someone who is homeless. The plan is to start a dialogue among individuals, and give attendees the chance to ask questions.
“I think we can be a little more generous as a community than we are,” saysHenderson, who was also formerly the CEO of Delphi Group, and is very involved in local communities. “When you look at it, you can make small decisions, like do I get that large latte at Starbucks, or do I go around the corner to Tim’s and get something smaller, and put that extra toonie away to donate?”
Although education is a main component of the event, there is also emphasis on making the night enjoyable.
“First of all it’s fun,” says Henderson. “There are too many fundraisers that take up a lot of your evening where you have to dress up, and pay a lot of money to eat a rubber chicken dinner. This isn’t like that.”
Henderson says there will be no formal speeches or presentations at the event, but rather interaction and education for attendees about the issues surrounding homelessness.
The group of seven friends raise on average $20,000 a year, with around 225 attendees at each event. Neil Knudsen, another volunteer organizer of the fundraiser, credits the energetic Henderson with the idea, saying he pitched the idea to the group, who were soon all on board. The $20,000 raised from the event is split into three and donated to chosen organizations, which put it towards homeless programming.
“The Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa gets a special spot, they get a third of the funds every year because they’re the umbrella organization for the 70-odd homeless organizations,” says Neil Knudsen, former president of IT company Meridian Networks, currently at investment company Class5. “They typically use the funds we raise to print their annual report card.”
St. Luke’s table, a lunch program at St. Luke’s Anglican Church on Somerset, located just down the street from where the fundraiser will be held, is one organization receiving funds. Another is Operation Come Home, a Centretown-based support centre for homeless youth.
“The funds we receive will be used to supply our resource centre with food,” says Elspeth McKay, executive director at Operation Come Home. “We usually rely on the food bank, but sometimes we like to be able to augment the food that we receive with other more nutritious-type food. We have 60 to 80 youth that come here everyday.”