Author: thegivingtruck

Love is in the air! Our amazing volunteers from DASH (youth group) created beautiful handmade Valentine’s Day cards! These cards, along with some treats, were gifted to the seniors at Harmony House (assisted living facility).

Happy Valentine’s Day from The Giving Truck! With the overflow of kindness and donations during our first Valentine’s Day activity, we hosted a second baking and card making event for our new friends at Candela Place, Karis Place, and Kindred Place. More Than a Roof communities serve “single parents, seniors, singles and those needing support with mental health or addiction recovery.” Thank you to our volunteers for bringing joy to the residents!! Keep spreading love, everyone!

First event of the year! We are very grateful for the support from Mr. Daryl Weaver and the Vancouver College staff who invited their students to collect and assemble care kits for those at the Men’s Shelter. We were given a tour of the facility and were able to meet some of the friendly faces who will be receiving the numerous Christmas gifts!

An incredibly memorable experience at Luke 15 House! We are very blessed to have met amazing individuals and heard their stories. Our gratitude goes to those who supplied items for these Christmas care kits including Mr. Rahim Rahemtulla, Mr. Dave Araneta, and Mr. Wilmero Bandiola of Shoppers Drug Mart, Matthieu and the Cha family, Mrs. Rachel Platon and the West Jet agents and staff, as well as Miss Matossian, Mr. Udhay Sokhi, and the students of Little Flower Academy. Your kind efforts have brought peace and joy to the guests at Luke 15 House.

Care kits (prepared by St. Paul’s LifeTeen and through the generosity of SFU Pursuit of Happiness and Sherwin Siy of DollarSmart) finally made their way to newly arrived families at Mount Pleasant Circles of Care and Connection Early Years Refugee Program. Educational toys, personal hygiene products, and essentials were donated.

Our volunteers are BAKING a difference, one chocolate chip at a time. Thank you Inner Hope Youth Ministries for inviting us to share some sweet treats with the youth and families for your Christmas Celebration! Inner Hope “provides support, discipleship, life skills and housing for inner city youth and their families in East Vancouver.”

Thank you to Santa’s helpers for sharing the spirit of Christmas! Many thanks to St. Paul’s LifeTeen for assembling care packages for the families at Mount Pleasant Circles of Care and Connection Early Years Refugee Program. Inside the bags were toques, gloves, shampoo, bars of soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, sanitary napkins, as well as educational toys for the children.

On December 3, the Centre for Child Development created holiday stockings given to newly arrived families in the Early Years program! Thankful for all the support and many donations.

LFA Angels continue to spread the holiday spirit! Many thanks to Miss Matossian and the Community Care Club for assembling these care packages for Luke 15 House last week.

‘Tis the season of giving! Many thanks to Mrs. Rachel Platon and the West Jet agents and staff for donating all of these food items for the Richmond Food Bank!

Some sweet treats for the veterans and seniors at Whole Way House and Brock Fahrni! These facilities both house and provide services for those who have served our country. Thank you to Ashley, Sonora, Nick, and all our volunteers who helped with this event in honour of Remembrance Day. Lest we forget.

A huge thank you to all the volunteers who donated clothing and spent time to welcome newly arrived families! Lots of clothing donations were collected, sorted, and distributed to 95 attendees. It was a beautiful day to serve families in need in our community. Thank you to Active8 for your kindness and generosity! The girls club collected and sorted clothing donated to families in need at the Centre of Child Development’s Winter Wear Drive. Thank you for the fun collaboration!

Our Bake Sale was filled with the sweetest treats and the sweetest people! Students from Corpus Christi College – St. Mark’s and volunteers from The Giving Truck helped bake the most delectable goodies. All of the proceeds from this fundraiser will go towards our Christmas Care Kits in December. We are very thankful for everyone’s support and generosity!

It’s back to school with The Giving Truck! Thanks to all our volunteers and their donations, The Centre for Child Development, Early Years Hub hosted a school supply drive for the families in Surrey. Thank you so much to Micah, Patrick, Karen, Lisa, and the whole team at The Centre for Child Development. Without our very generous volunteers, our event wouldn’t possible so many thanks to all those who donated!

Thank you to all our volunteers for helping us out with our August Bake Fest! Ukrainian Village received over 150 baked goods for their residents! Special thanks to Gabby for leading the event and all our amazing volunteers.

Thank you to all the wonderful people who came out to our Shoreline Cleanup on August 20, 2022 at Spanish Banks! A big thank you to Nando’s (Garden City location) for collaborating with us again this year and to their team for making this all possible.

It was a lovely time meeting all the youth at the Youth Expo Ministry Fair at St. Matthew’s! The youth asked so many great questions and it was incredible to see their willingness to serve. Many thanks to Eleanor for organizing and the rest of the leaders at St. Matthew’s for hosting a fruitful event.

This month, we collaborated with The Good Day Charitable Foundation to donate clothing and items for those at the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre and VGH Emergency! Many thanks to all our incredible volunteers for their donations.

Small acts of kindness can go a long way! Volunteers donated new and gently used clothing for the families at Richmond Family Place. It was so lovely to see people donate and support our community in this month of June! Thank you very much!

This month of May, volunteers donated sanitary napkins and hands sanitizers to Turning Point’s Women’s Recovery Centre. Thank you to everyone who made this possible. It was so lovely meeting Susan!

The Ambassadors wanted to support Aneki, transitional housing for women fleeing domestic violence. Our volunteers helped collect and donate menstrual hygiene products, toiletries, handmade pillows, and 1000 paper cranes for the women! Special thanks to our Ambassadors, Sébastien Bergeron, Mr. Arnel Galay and Mrs. Angie Galay, and all our many volunteers who donated.

The Giving Truck collaborated with Good Guys BC for our very first sandwich-making event together! After preparing the sandwiches, volunteers had the chance to distribute them in the Downtown Eastside. Many thanks to the volunteers, Ambassadors, and Good Guys BC for such a successful event!

Thanks to our Ambassadors and our many volunteers, our Care4Kids Drive went so well! We dropped off your donations of kids toys and kids hygiene products to Monarch Place, a transition house for women and children fleeing violence. Many thanks to Diya, Chelsea, Hannah, and Kyra for leading this event and to our volunteers for donating all these items.

For Valentine’s Day, Youville Residence and Honoria Conway at St. Vincent’s received over 100 cards, treats, and pastries (donated by COB’S Bread Blundell location). Thank you to DJ, Denzel, Hannah, Krztian, Kyle, Andrei, Matthieu and the Cha family, Ms. Cervi and St. Pat’s, and the Grade 12 homerooms. Thank you for sharing your love on this special holiday.

February 17 was #RandomActsofKindnessDay! Celebrate kindness in your homes and in your communities today and everyday.

At the beginning of January, we collaborated with the staff and student body of Vancouver College! 50 care packages were assembled and delivered to the Circle of Care & Connection Early Years Refugee Program at the Mount Pleasant Family Centre. Special thanks to Theresa Tang, the K-6 classes at Vancouver College, Ms. Barbara Seppelt, and Mr. Darryl Weaver for initiating and facilitating this wonderful project.

Started off the Christmas season by dropping off the care kits prepared by St. Paul’s LifeTeen for the youth at Inner Hope Youth Ministries! Youth will receive a personalized pillow case filled with essential items and treats for the winter season. Thank you to Kim and her sons, Nicolas and Lucas Jacob, Amy Baarda of Inner Hope, and St. Paul’s Lifeteen for all your help!

On December 22, we spent our early morning singing Christmas tunes and distributed care packages at The Door Is Open made by the Focolare Movement. These care packages included shampoo, deodorant, gloves, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a comb, bars of soap, face wipes, thermal gloves, socks, and a toque! Thank you to the youth and families of the Gen 3 Focolare Movement (Our Lady of Fatima PREP, All Saints PREP, St. Michael’s Elementary, the D’Souza family, the Boyd family) Giulia, Igino, Sherwin and the Dollarsmart Family, Sister Chita and Frances of The Door Is Open, and the Kidpreneurs.

On Christmas, the residents at the Catholic Charities Men’s Shelter opened presents containing face masks, a toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, a comb, bars of soap, deodorant, thermal gloves, and socks provided by the generous hearts of numerous donors. This was all possible through the collaboration with the Newman Association and Newman Club of UBC. Thank you to Sherlynn Fung, Jan, Andrew, and Carlo of the Newman Association, Kim of the Newman Club, the Galay Family, Sherwin Lim and the DollarSmart Family, Matthieu Cha and his family, and our volunteers who assembled the presents on December 18.

For Remembrance Day, we delivered cookies and pastries to the veterans and seniors at Whole Way House. Thank you to our wonderful volunteers, Krztian and Kamilyn, Mr. Andrew Gunn of COBS Bread (Blundell Location), as well as Joyce, Jenny, and Sonora of Whole Way House.

The participants of LifeTeen assembled care packages consisting of essential items such as shampoo, body wash, razors, deodorant, feminine hygiene products, and even some sweet treats. These care kits will go to Inner Hope Youth Ministries this Christmas season. Thank you to all the teens and leaders who brought in items and put together the care kits with us.

So grateful to the St. Anthony of Padua Youth Ministry led by Rachel Djauhari for their kind hearts and for making sandwiches for our dear friends at The Gathering Place in Vancouver. Thank you also to Mr. Sherwin Lim of DollarSmart, the Dalmacio Family, Arnel and Angie Galay, and Cobs Bread Blundell location. Happy Thanksgiving!

Amazing job to high school students from Little Flower Academy! They assembled care packages filled with essential items including shampoo, conditioner, lotion, soap, diapers, wipes, socks, and hand-made cards for those at Mamas for Mamas. We appreciate all the love and support! This event was made possible by the generous hearts of Mr. Wilmero Bandiola (Front Store Manager) and Mr. Rahim Rahemtulla (Pharmacist) of Shoppers Drug Mart #288, Modern Beauty Supply, Anne-Marie, and our great Ambassadors, Raeesah, DJ, and Anushka. So thankful for your donations! Thank you for supporting expectant mothers and caregivers in need.

Many thanks to our Ambassadors and volunteers for helping out with our clothing drive for Wildlife Thrift Store and NightShift Street Ministries on September 6! Our Ambassadors, Chelsea, Diya, Hala, Kevin, Gabby, Medina, & Taryn, did an exceptional job at collecting donations for those in our communities most in need!

Our wonderful ambassadors with another successful event! Ethan, Hannah, Jacob, Kyra, and Melanie partnered with Rosewood Manor, a long term care home in Richmond, BC. These special ambassadors delivered greeting cards with affirmations, warm compliments, and words of kindness. Special thanks to the Grade 5 students at Saint Paul School, Senior Prefects, Matthieu and the Cha family, and all other volunteers who helped spread greetings to the seniors residing at Rosewood Manor.

On #InternationalYouthDay (August 12, 2021), we highlight the amazing young people who are actively making a difference in their communities. Young people are finding ways to create a positive impact on the world and are seeking to bring attention to the problems that they face everyday. From clothing drives to meal programs, the youth at The Giving Truck are empowering other youth to take action and serve their community in their own ways.

On August 13, many people and supported the hard-working Kidpreneurs at Kidtropolis for our Lemonade Stand Challenge! The money raised will go towards funding our future monthly activities.

On August 21, our Ambassadors participated in our second Shoreline Cleanup at Jericho Beach. We all had so much fun cleaning up our local waterways. We were able to collect 10 garbage bags full of trash! Thank you to Nando’s Garden City for sponsoring this event.

On August 27, the Kidpreneurs were amazing in raising funds for The Giving Truck. Special thanks to Kristine, Gina, the JCC, Nando’s Garden City, and all the families that came out on Friday to buy snacks and drinks from our kids! We are so so so grateful for all the support we’ve received with our Lemonade Stand Challenges.

Her Drive was a HUGE success! Our Ambassadors, as part of Her Drive, collected over a WHOPPING 11,000 items consisting of bras and menstrual care products for the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre this past month. Big big big thank you to our Ambassadors – Breanna, Adriana, Denzel, LillyMai, Josie, and Anne-Marie for all their help, and to everyone who has donated their time and efforts for this project.

On July 16, The Kidpreneurs did a wonderful job at working on their posters and selling their products at the Lemonade Stand Challenge, which will fund our monthly projects. Special thanks to Kidtropolis, Kristine, the Lozada Family, and the Nando’s Family for making this event possible.

On July 18, The Giving Truck partnered up with Nando’s to honour Nelson Mandela and his 67 years of fighting for social justice in South Africa. We delivered 67 meals to the Ukrainian Village Seniors’ Building and to the Turning Point Recovery Centre. We’d like to extend our thanks to the Nando’s Family, our volunteers, and our amazing Ambassadors for all their help.

Annika Revillosa did an amazing job at hosting our Summer Supply Drive. Many volunteers donated gently-used shorts and shirts to support those at the Richmond House Emergency Shelter. 

Sending love to all our father figures on Father’s Day! Boxes of clothing donations were delivered along with hand-made cards and COBS Bread pastries for the residents at The Russell Lookout Emergency Aid Society, a year-round, minimal barrier shelter for men. Thank you to all who generously donated and to the COBS Bread Blundell Location for the yummy treats!

The Russell Lookout Emergency Aid Society: “Provides non-sectarian, lay services to adults with problems such as mental illness, mental or physical disabilities, medical problems, social dysfunctions, legal concerns, and/or substance abuse.”

For Mother’s Day, our wonderful and crafty volunteers lovingly made angels, cards, and care kits for the Sancta Maria House and Agape Street Ministries. Thank you to Patricia Goldsmith, Cecilia Ramirez and her Grade 5 class from St. Augustine School, Matthieu Cha and Family, and Ms. Mislang, for assisting at-risk women.

From May 28-29, Anne-Marie Macken led The Giving Truck volunteers to join Covenant House in their Sleep Out. It challenges individuals, families, and businesses to spend one night sleeping either on their living room floor, on their balcony or in their backyard. Covenant House is an organization that provides love and hope to Vancouver’s homeless and at-risk street youth. All donations are used to support Covenant House’s Street Outreach Program.

Sweet treats made with love! We were so touched by the many people who made Easter special for those at The Door Is Open through our “Easter Bake Fest” event.

Our sincere thanks to Mr. Dwayne Allan, Mr. Abdul Walli, and the Park’N Fly Vancouver family for donating a wide selection of food items to our local food bank. On April 17th, volunteers from different cities delivered non-perishable food items to local food banks. Just at the Richmond Food Bank, donations brought in from our volunteers weighed 309kg/681lbs! We appreciate all your hard work and efforts in helping many individuals during the pandemic.

It was such a blessing to be featured on Feminine Genius Podcast which “[celebrates] the diversity of Catholic femininity, one woman’s story at a time” with host, Rachel Wong.

At the beginning of the month, bags of clothing donations were delivered to Directions Youth Services. “Directions Youth Services offers low-barrier programs and services to support youth under the age of 25 who are in crisis or experiencing homelessness as a result of abuse, neglect, substance use, or mental health challenges. We welcome and serve all youth.” Bags of clothing donations were also delivered to “My Sister’s Closet”. “Founded in 2001, My Sister’s Closet is a social enterprise of Battered Women’s Support Services. As advocates of zero waste, eco-fashion and the thrift movement, we enable all genders to access beautiful new and second-hand clothing and locally made artisan creations by women. 100 percent of revenue generated from sales help fund the violence prevention and intervention services and programs operated by BWSS, supporting more than 18,000 requests we receive annually.”

Our Ambassador Program officially launched in March! These passionate individuals are inspired to make a difference in their communities. 

From March 22-27, we were so blessed to have been selected by COBS Bread (Blundell location) as their chosen charity for “Doughnation Week”. The proceeds help us continue our monthly activities. “Buy a 6 pack of hot cross buns online, and we’ll donate $2 back to a local charity.” – COBS Bread

Happy Valentine’s Day! Our lovely volunteers made beautiful cards and individually packed muffin bars to spread love to 300+ seniors. 

To start off 2021, happy helpers volunteered to safely pack muffin bars for our brothers and sisters at The Door Is Open!

Christmas looked very different this year but we still wanted to spread joy for newcomer families and populations experiencing homelessness.

At the beginning of the month, we invited volunteers to participate in this year’s Street Store by donating gently-used clothing.

On December 15, we dropped off care kits at the Mount Pleasant Family Centre Society for newly arrived refugee families. The staff safely distributed these care kits to share some love this Christmas season.

Our annual Christmas care kit distribution was made possible this year thanks to all the generous hearts of the Gen3 Focolare Movement families. We were able to drop off these care kits at the Door is Open for the staff to distribute safely to those in the Downtown Eastside.

Christmas dinner was served at the new location of the Men’s Hostel (near St. Paul’s Hospital). We prepared sweet and sour pork, fried rice, Caesar salad, and chocolate chip cookies. Assorted pastries were also donated by COBS Bread (Blundell Location).

For Remembrance Day, we honoured our dear veterans. Our volunteers safely packed cookies for the veterans at the George Derby Centre.

In honour of St. Leo The Great’s Feast Day and Remembrance Day, we served dinner at the Men’s Hostel. We prepared chicken teriyaki on rice pilaf, Caesar salad, and chocolate oatmeal cookies. Assorted pastries were also donated by COBS Bread (Blundell location).

In honour of the Feast Day of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, we delivered meals and assorted pastries (donated by COBS Bread Blundell Location) for the residents of the Men’s Hostel.

With the support of our volunteers and their families, the Care to Connect team won $5000 from the “Push for Change Foundation” for our Promise Project raising awareness on youth homelessness. Our team of five young adults decided to donate all our winnings to our charity of choice, “Covenant House”, to further their programs for at-risk youth.

For the Feast Day of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we served a warm meal at the Men’s Hostel. We’re happy to help these men go to bed with a full stomach. “We serve life not because it is broken, but because it is holy.” – Mother Teresa

We were invited and interviewed by Salt + Light Media in Toronto to be featured in their “In All Things” television series. We were so blessed to share our story in one of their episodes. Click here to listen.

On top of this, we received a donation from one of our major donors, COBS Bread (Blundell location), after dedicating the month of March to raise funds for The Giving Truck.

We spent St. Augustine’s Feast Day at the Men’s Hostel, preparing warm individually packed meals.

We were interviewed in an international podcast hosted by youth across the border in Mexicali and California to share how The Giving Truck can help inspire other teens in North America. Click here if you’d like to listen to “Raisa & Renai Jose: A Story of Giving”.

We also celebrated the Feast Day of St. Ignatius of Loyola by serving meals to the residents of the Men’s Hostel.

For Father’s Day, we packed spring mix salad with raspberry vinaigrette, chicken teriyaki on stir fried cabbage with parboiled rice, and a chocolate chip cookie for each resident at the Men’s Hostel.

With a team, we created “Care to Connect”, a project that raises awareness on youth homelessness and focuses on family bonding. Weekly challenges include baking and cooking together, striking a pose for a family photoshoot and competing in a paper airplane competition. Families that participated sent in photos and videos and were featured on our social media platforms.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Giving Truck took action in the Downtown Eastside at the Men’s Hostel. Individually packed hot meals were served to the residents at the facility to celebrate Easter with joy.

COBS Bread graciously dedicated the whole month of March to raise funds for The Giving Truck. On April 4th, for every 6-pack of Hot Cross Buns sold at the Blundell location, $2 was donated to The Giving Truck as they shared goodness on “Doughnation Day” to continue our monthly projects.

On February 22, The Giving Truck was invited to hold a booth at the Volunteer Fair at the One World One Heart Conference. This was our second year sharing our mission with the youth.

Our volunteers had loads of fun at Richmond Family Place for the “Eating Together” event. We got the chance to spend time with families and serve breakfast for everyone who attended.

On January 3, we dropped off clothing donations from our clothing drive in December at Richmond Family Place and also to the Canadian Diabetes Association.

The Giving Truck also got the chance to visit Atira’s Sorella Housing for Women. Volunteers collected and dropped off the clothing donations and had an exclusive tour of the facility.

In December, we hosted a clothing drive at Corpus Christi College. All clothing donations were given to those in the Downtown Eastside.

St. Paul’s Elementary School in Richmond, BC collaborated with The Giving Truck for our main Christmas project. Each grade donated either toothbrushes, toothpaste, bars of soap, pairs of socks, combs, shampoo, gloves/mittens, sanitary pads, or diapers for refugee families.

These items were put into care kits which were assembled by the LifeTeen youth ministry. Volunteers dropped the care kits off at the Mount Pleasant Family Centre for the Circles of Care and Connection/Early Years Refugee Program. The families were so lovely to meet!

Just a couple of days before Christmas, we partnered with Park’N Fly Canada (Vancouver) to make care kits for the homeless in the Downtown Eastside. Over 100 care kits were distributed by our volunteers. Pastries were donated by COBS Bread (Blundell location) and extra items were sponsored by Dollar Smart. This event would not be possible without the help of our amazing sponsors and donors. You don’t know the impact you have made on the lives of the men and women in the Downtown Eastside.

We honoured the veterans on Remembrance Day as we welcomed guests, sold art made by veterans, and assisted in many more activities at the George Derby Centre in Burnaby, BC.

Little Flower Academy partnered with The Giving Truck making sandwiches for those at the Powell Street Getaway Resource Centre in the Downtown Eastside. More volunteers helped distribute the sandwiches and pastries at the facility afterwards.

On August 10th, The Giving Truck hosted its very first Shoreline Cleanup at Jericho Beach. We’re passionate about keeping our planet clean and beautiful for all of us to enjoy!

Our volunteers helped make soup and sandwiches at Canadian Martyrs Catholic Church. They also set up and served dinner at the Catholic Charities Men’s Hostel. The men were very grateful.

A two day yoga fundraiser for anyone and everyone! We happily partnered with “Bliss Out Yoga” to lead 45 minute yoga sessions.

All proceeds went towards our “Dinner & Music” event at the Catholic Charities Men’s Hostel on June 22nd where we served soup and sandwiches.

Renai and I also had the chance to speak about The Giving Truck at the “Couples for Christ (CFC)” Annual Youth Power Conference in Surrey, BC. It was amazing to see the youth so eager to learn more about how they can make a difference in their community.

One World One Heart is a social justice conference led by students from Little Flower Academy and Vancouver College. This year, The Giving Truck was asked to lead a session and be included as the guest speakers. At this event, we asked attendees to pack care kits and write cards for the mothers at Union Gospel Mission on Mother’s Day.

On Monday, May 13th, we distributed these care kits and treated the women for a “Spa Day” and pampered them with the help of volunteers from Blanche MacDonald – Canada’s number one makeup, fashion, and beauty school. Anna V Alan sponsored her makeup line to be used on the day of as well as a makeup kit for the women to take home in their care kits as well.

I was invited to speak to a Grade 4 class about The Giving Truck and share ways how they can give back to their community. The students were so inspired that they wanted to host a toy drive at their school. For Easter, the students brought more than two toys each and donated them to the children at Atira: Women’s Resource Society. Along with the toys, the children received Easter eggs decorated and written by the Grade 4 students.

For March, we hosted a Krispy Kreme fundraiser at Corpus Christi College on the UBC campus. We sold more than 85 boxes and all the proceeds went to our “Soup and Sandwich Lunch” at the Lookout Society in Surrey, BC. Volunteers made sandwiches for the homeless and those in modular housing who experience substance abuse or mental illness.

On February 16th, we also visited Rosewood Manor, a senior living facility, where many happy volunteers serenaded the old folks with love songs and praise hymns for Valentine’s Day. The Grades 1 & 2 classes from St. Paul’s School made handwritten Valentine cards for the seniors. We also packed some chocolates for them to enjoy. The initiative was a success!

On December 10, 2018, students at Little Flower Academy came out to help out with our pilot activity. As the school day ended, Renai and I were surprised as more than sixty high school students flooded into the dining hall to help assemble the “care kits” with the items, place the care kits in The Giving Truck vehicle, and write messages such as “You are loved” and “You are valued” on the water bottles. Volunteers were able to pack 100 black eco-bags filled with a pair of gloves, socks, some toiletries, food and other supplies to help keep many hearts and bodies warm.

I wanted the girls to realize that this activity shouldn’t just be during Christmas, but rather to continue the virtue of giving throughout the year. It was this event that urged me to do an activity every month. I spent January planning and coordinating with different facilities and services to reach to more people and get more youth involved in various communities.