DID YOU KNOW…
The main function of the Ottawa Food Bank is to assist 112 emergency food programs across the city. These programs are our (FANTASTIC!) member agencies.
We help our member agency network by providing them with food and supplies, grant and training opportunities, and support.
It is through these hard-working agencies that we collectively help to provide food and supplies for over 39,000 people every month.
During Hunger Action Month, we’d like to shine a spotlight on some of the fantastic programs who work so hard to help their community. Rideau-Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre is one of these programs with whom we are so proud to partner.
Introducing: Rideau-Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre
The Rideau-Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre (RRCRC) was established in 1982 to provide for Ottawa’s Ward 13 by offering a wide range of social supports and services. Those services now include a community food bank that provides food to approximately 800 people faced with food insecurity every single month.
The overarching vision for RRCRC is a secure, dignified, and rewarding life for all residents of Rideau-Rockcliffe and, over the years, their food security programming has adapted and evolved to better meet the needs of their community. The current pandemic presented yet another opportunity for RRCRC to adapt and evolve their programming in order to continue to provide for their clients in a way that keeps everyone safe. For the RRCRC food bank service, that meant implementing a schedule to book appointments for food bank visitors. This system has proven to be very effective for their team and visitors and they have been are able to process three appointments every 15 minutes.
In addition to their regular food bank services, the Rideau-Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre has a number of innovative social enterprise food programs that have played a key role in how they respond to food insecurity in their catchment and beyond. Some of this programming includes:
Ottawa Good Food Box & MarketMobile
Focused on working with community partners and customers to find solutions that enables the delivery of fresh and affordable foods into Ottawa communities that lack physical and financial access to an affordable grocery store.
Good Food on the Move
Customers are offered click-and-collect, open-air pick-up markets. In this model, customers have the choice of what items they would like to purchase each week and in what quantities. This service currently has pick-up markets in seven communities that do not have easy access to an affordable grocery store.
Local Food for our Local Food Bank
This new program was launched in April and aims to source and purchase locally produced food, meals, and other requested food bank items from Ward 13 small businesses. This is a win-win for clients and small businesses, many of whom are also struggling during this challenging time.
Social Harvest
This social enterprise aims to grow nutritious food and nourish connections to generate positive impacts in the community. This summer, they have put their 713 square feet urban greenhouse space to use by producing tomatoes and microgreens for the RRCRC Food Bank.
Something important to the core of RRCRC’s operations is that everyone has the right to fresh, nutritious food and as such the Rideau-Rockcliffe Resource Centre is taking steps with their programming to make this happen.
THANK YOU to the Rideau-Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre for everything you do for people in your community. We are proud to play a small role in helping the people who walk through your doors.
