CAMPBELL RIVER, B.C. – Local charity Grassroots, Kind Hearts Society is looking to win a grant from the Aviva Community Fund.
The Aviva Community Fund is an annual competition where winners can get a grant for their Small or Big Idea. The ideas must bring the community together and leave a long-lasting impact. Grassroots, Kind Hearts Society is under the Big Idea category where if they win, they will receive $100, 000.
Grassroots, Kind Hearts Society is requesting for the funds because Krisandra Rufus, the founder, and her team of volunteers don’t have a permanent place to prepare food and distribute it.
Currently, Rufus prepares the dinners at her own home. She and her volunteers serve the meals from Radiant Life, a local Campbell River church.
Grassroots, Kind Hearts Society serves roughly 30 to 80 people. According to Rufus, the amount they serve depends on when people receive welfare or child tax cheques.
Rufus said she first started serving food after she received a call from her nephew saying he was hungry and homeless.
“I was like “isn’t there a dinner program?” and he said no, there hasn’t been for a couple of years,” she said. What started out as cooking for him turned into a bigger initiative as she realized others in a similar situation as her nephew needed the food as well.
Rufus said that besides preparing and distributing food, she also hopes that the grant will allow her to open a place big enough to implement a few other things.
“I was thinking about re-introducing life skills to people that have lost them either just because they don’t know or from living outside for so long. And I would like to do stuff for the kids who are ageing out of the foster home (system), because they don’t really have anything really set up for the ones ageing out and then they just end up on the street.”
Ideas with the highest number of votes move on to the Judging Round, and if they get the highest score, they will receive one of the three $100, 000 prizes. The consolation prize is at $15, 000.
A complete list of the ideas can be found here. To vote for Grassroots, Kind Hearts Society, visit this link.
The voting period ends on October 4th.
