Letter of thanks to Kingston community for record-breaking support of Give 30 campaign

The following is a submitted Letter to the Editor. The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Kingstonist.

To the Members of the Kingston community,

We have come to the end of our eighth annual Give 30 Campaign in Kingston. July 31 marked our final day of this year’s campaign, which launched with the beginning of Ramadan in April and extended through to the end of July. Our community has been dealing with the additional challenges of navigating this extended COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in increased demand for the services of Partners in Mission Food Bank. For the third year in a row under COVID-19, the Kingston community has stepped up to help the increasing number of neighbours who have found themselves in need during these difficult times.

On behalf of the Give 30 Kingston Team — including our partners Dan Irwin and Debbie Graves of the Partners in Mission Food Bank — as well as our National Chair and Founder, Ziyaad Mia, we would like to take this opportunity to relay our appreciation to this great community for raising a record-breaking grand total of $16,250 for Partners in Mission Food Bank through the Give 30 Campaign. This is the most we have ever raised in the past eight years of running this campaign!

Give 30 was initially launched in 2012 to bring attention to hunger in our communities and encourage people to support local food banks during the month of Ramadan through Give30.org. The initial focus was to motivate people who are fasting in Ramadan to donate the money they save from skipping meals over the month. But, as emphasized by Ziyaad Mia, people who are not fasting can also take part; donations come from people of all faiths and backgrounds, as we are all part of the same community. Give 30 currently supports 19 major food banks and anti-poverty organizations across Canada, the United States, and Australia, together serving hundreds of thousands of people.

Give 30 is not about a particular group or faith, but about uniting in common humanity, and Kingston has exemplified this again and again. Hunger and poverty know no race, religion, ethnicity, creed, gender, or age, and we should come together as a community to alleviate it.

Thank you for your efforts to ensure that your neighbours do not go to sleep hungry, particularly during the unique challenges brought by the pandemic. According to Dan Irwin, Executive Director of Partners in Mission Food Bank, “With inflation hitting as hard as it is, donating can be a challenge now. We also seeing higher need, our food hamper distribution is 20 per cent higher than we were this time last year.”

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