Each year, Lowe’s and Rona stores across Canada host a nation-wide fundraising campaign throughout the month of September to raise money in support of a local charity of their choosing. Fresh Food Weekly was selected as the September 2021 recipient for the Barrie Rona store. ​

Bone Broths were sold frozen for $9.00 a litre, on site at Thorganic Farms, as well as at the Vaughan Farmer’s Market by Thorganic Farms, as well as at the Thornton Farmer’s Market by Stone Horse Farm, as well as through the local Farm-to-Family online catalogue. All the ingredients were provided by donors. 

Adam Pauze of Pauze Innovations hosted his annual Charity Golf Tournament and chose Fresh Food Weekly as their 2022 charitable recipient. This fundraiser was in support of Fresh Food Weekly’s meal box program launch and first official meal box program delivery day, which took place four days later. 

Leah Dyck attended one of the meetings for the Rotary Club of Barrie - Kempenfelt as the guest speaker and spoke about the food insecurity crisis in Barrie, Ont. 

Guys That Give is a group of local men who come together and donate $100 each, four times a year to pool this money, and vote for a local charity or nonprofit to give it to. ​

Tickets to enter the raffle draw fundraiser were $45 each, which was the price of one meal box at the time. The goal of this fundraiser was to encourage members in the community to sponsor a low-income family with one monthly meal box delivery. 

Each year, this group of motorcyclists does a ‘Motorcycle Drive’ to raise money in support of a local charity. This money was used to pay for 10 Christmas meal boxes that went out the following month. 

Fresh Food Weekly was one of three charities who came to pitch their charity to a group of men. The winning charity received 80 percent of the prize money and the other two charities each received 10 percent. Fresh Food Weekly was nominated by Michael Tough, who attended a presentation by Leah Dyck at the Rotary Club of Innisfil. 

Leah Dyck attended one of the meetings for the Rotary Club of Barrie - Huronia as the guest speaker and spoke about the food insecurity crisis in Barrie, Ont.

The 100 Women Who Care - South Simcoe group is a relatively newer group of local women who meet quarterly to donate $100 each meeting, and then pool their funds to vote on three local charities to donate their funds to.  

Fresh Food Weekly applied for Georgian College’s local community sponsorship fund seeking a sponsorship for our upcoming Easter meal boxes and was approved. 

Fresh Food Weekly was granted this money in support of our Easter meal boxes that went out on April 5, 2023. 

The May Court Club of Barrie is a group of local women who raise funds throughout the year and then disburse these funds among local charities of their choosing, who apply for the funds in advance. In 2023, the club awarded $40,000 to various charities in the community, and Fresh Food Weekly was one of those recipient charities.  

Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) donated a signed John Tavares jersey to Fresh Food Weekly to use in a fundraiser. The raffle ran for 51 days and 99 people entered and purchases a total of 327 tickets. Tickets were $10 for one or $20 for three. 

The Father's Day prize pack raffle draw fundraiser ran for 23 days and was only offered to people who lived in Barrie, or who were willing to meeting at a pickup location within 50km of Barrie. A total of 36 people entered this raffle contest, and purchased a total of 163 tickets. Tickets sold at one for $10.00 or three for $20.00. 

RBC’s Corporate National Employee Giving Program allows RBC Employees to give back to the community as a result of their employee-matching program. Through this program, RBC donates money [to local registered charities selected by individual employees] for time spent volunteering in the community. Between the two Barrie branches at 99 Mapleview Dr., W and 405 Bayfield St., at least 15 RBC staff volunteered for Fresh Food Weekly at least once, while around eight volunteered regularly and at least two volunteering every single delivery day, in some capacity.  

Andreea Bucur is one of Fresh Food Weekly’s main volunteers and she planned, organized and hosted Fresh Food Weekly’s inaugural 2023 Fall Auction. A total of 36 items were auctioned to a total of 22 bidders. 

Christ Church - St. Jude's Anglican Church in Thornton hosted their annual Harvest Dinner and Auction fundraiser, and selected Fresh Food Weekly as their 2023 charitable recipient. The congregation decided they wanted to support local food security, and the lead organizer of this event was Cherrie Banting-Wrobel. Fresh Food Weekly used this money to help pay for the turkeys in the Thanksgiving Dinner Meal Boxes. The Harvest Dinner and auction raised just over the exact amount needed to cover our 2023 Thanksgiving turkeys, which were purchased from Farm Boy that year. 

Members of the community could place pre-orders for frozen, homemade 9-inch apple pies made with locally-grown apples donated by Four Wheel Farm in Glen Huron, Ont. We delivered to customers at home who lived in Barrie or Innisfil. Pies were also available for pickup the day earlier. 

Fresh Food Weekly submitted two grants to The Innisfil Community Foundation in 2023. The first one was for funds for the largest chest freezer at Best Buy, plus some additional funds for operating costs. The second one was for another chest freezer from Best Buy (the exact same as the first one). 

Fresh Food Weekly created the opportunity for members in the community to “give the gift of giving” by sponsoring low-income families in crisis with a turkey dinner meal box on Christmas Eve and receiving the receipt in the form of a thoughtful Christmas card and voice note, for the purpose of giving it as a Christmas present for friends and loved ones. Donors could order a Christmas card for $60.00 each through the Fresh Food Weekly website. A Christmas card would sponsor one low-income family in Barrie or Innisfil, and included a QR code for a personalized voice from a different program recipient. Cards were mailed to donors in early December, along with a printed copy of their charitable tax receipt. We ended up selling a total of 33 Christmas cards for Christmas 2023. 

Black Friday fundraising campaigns are about Canadian communities taking care of each other and when charities promote their cause on Black Friday, they’re trying to get people to take a moment and consider the needs of the less fortunate while their shopping for their Black Friday deals. 

Fresh Food Weekly joined the CanadaHelps’ global GivingTuesday campaign on this day of Tuesday, November 28th, 2023, and asked to have it featured on their high-traffic GivingTuesday marketing page. 

Gateway Casinos has a corporate giving and community engagement program called GatewayGIVES, which involves company employees nominating and voting on 12 local organizations to share a $24,000 donation as part of their ‘12 Days of Giving Campaign’. Fresh Food Weekly was nominated and selected as one of the 12 local charitable recipients to receive Gateway Casino Innisfil’s 2023 Christmas donation. 

Prize: Pair of Toronto Maple Leafs’ Tickets for a home game against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday, Dec. 14th, 2023vat 7:00 PM EST (Section 115, row 17, seats 11-12). 

Details: This Pair of Leafs’ Tickets Raffle Draw Fundraiser had 37 entrants who purchased a combined total of 339 tickets. Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment donated a pair of Leafs' tickets for the game against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023. Tickets sold for: one for $5.00, three for $10.00, or 10 tickets for $20.00. 

Leah Dyck has been a member of Connexus Community Church for years, having attended services way back when it was located on the 7th line of Oro Medonte and when it used to be called Trinity Presbyterian. This is one of the reasons why Leah chose Connexus Community Church for the location of Fresh Food Weekly’s very first fresh food ‘fulfillment location’. 

Although the biweekly meal box delivery program closed down in January 2024, we still ended the fiscal year off with a final fundraiser that raised funds for an Easter toy and candy for kids under the age of 13.