Thanks to funding from the Rotary Foundation, the Rotary Club of Ottawa-Bytown was able to purchase and install a new dishwasher and countertop at the Centretown Emergency Food Centre at 507 Bank Street, Ottawa in February, 2017. The Club received a District Simplified Grant from the Rotary Foundation which helped to pay for the project.

 

 The new dishwasher and countertop will enable the Food Centre to offer food in containers which are properly sanitized.  This will prevent contamination and illness. 

 

 The Food Centre operates on a very limited budget.  It was desperately in need of a new dishwasher.   The support of Rotary in purchasing the dishwasher will mean that the Food Centre will not have to expend their limited funds on a dishwasher.  They will therefore have more money to spend on the purchase of food for those in need in the community. 

 

Two members of our Club, Terry Egan and Stu Hewlett, actively participated in the implementation of the project,

 

 Since 2015, the Rotary Club of Ottawa-Bytown has held five food drives on behalf of the Food Centre and we have raised almost $10,000 in food and cash which we donated to the Food Centre.  The food drives have resulted in a close working relationship with the Food Centre which has made us sensitive to the challenges the Food Centre faces in providing food, on a limited budget, to over 10,000 clients each year.  It was this close relationship which gave our club the awareness of the importance of this project and which gave the club the commitment to carry the project through to completion.

 

 The Rotary Club of Ottawa-Bytown club has held two club meetings on the site so that all the club members could learn about the needs of the Food Centre and to learn about the project.

 

 The direct beneficiaries of the project were clients who take the food home in bulk in properly sanitized containers.  The Food Centre provides food to over 10,000 people annually including immigrants, the homeless and the working poor. Many families obtain food from the Food Centre.  Therefore, the direct beneficiaries of the project include many children.

 

 We extend many thanks to the Rotary Foundation and to those who worked to implement this project and especially Stu Hewlett and Terry Egan.