100 Women Who Care Guelph has exceeded $500,000 in community support as the organization marks it's 10th year of giving with its most recent donation.
Hope House is the fourth charity of 2024 to receive a $17,000 donation which will supply milk and eggs to approximately 3,000 food insecure people in the city.
“The simplicity of the idea appealed to us,” says Sharon Lewis, one of the co-founders of 100 Women Who Care Guelph.
“We never really set a goal for the amount raised, but we knew the direction felt right.”
100 Women Who Care Guelph is a group of women in Guelph who care deeply about their community and are passionate about contributing to its health and vitality. Each quarter, they meet and make a $100 donation to a local charity voted on by the members.
The 100 Women concept has proven to be a powerful grassroots funding strategy that has spread around the globe and now has 127 chapters across the country. The Guelph chapter formed in October of 2014, emerging from a conversation among friends who recognized a need in the community, matched with a great desire for people to contribute locally.
“When we began this endeavour, we had no idea how long it would last, or what kind of impact it would have, but we knew the potential was great. What we did have a healthy dose of optimism, some great energy, and lots of ideas to bounce around the room,” said co-founder, Tannis Sprott.
The inaugural meeting saw 98 members sign up. Today, that number has grown to 175 members. New membership is always welcome.
With a commitment to support people in need, the organization is proud to have crossed the $500,000 mark in donations for local charities, including most recently, Hope House, that offers services and programs that challenge the stigmas surrounding poverty, providing community members with tactile skills to create long-term skills that facilitate self-sufficiency.
Among its various programs, Hope House, distributes both purchased and donated food through nine different food markets in Guelph to food insecure people. Unfortunately, most donated food is carbohydrate rich, lacking in foods, such as milk and eggs, that are high in protein and certain vitamins and minerals.
Hope House currently purchases 1,000 eggs a week at wholesale prices and with significant discounts but can barely meet the current demand.
The number of food insecure people visiting Hope House food markets alone has grown from 3,500 to 4,700 people in under a year, and is still increasing by over 34 per cent annually.
The organization says the most significant reason for the increase in demand is the high cost of affordable housing, which has tripled in recent years, for those on low incomes, working or not, or with complex needs.
And although likely temporary, a 1,000-person strike at Cargill, a local food plant, has significantly increased the number of people attending the food markets.
The $17,000 donation will supply four to five months of milk and eggs to over 3,000 Guelphites. Since demand is growing, Hope House says without increases in funding, it may need to place people on a wait list. Reducing food insecurity will help more people grow, succeed and be healthy.
“This timely donation from 100 Women Who Care is greatly needed by Hope House and could not have come at a better time. This June we served just under 3,000 unique individuals. This is equal to the number of unique individuals that we served over the entire year four years ago from April 2019 to March 2020,” said Tara Hoyte, communications manager at Hope House.
“Throughout all the years Hope House has been operating, we have never felt such pressure and desperation from our community. This donation will provide much-needed relief in our food market."
