Category: Uncategorized

Do you want to have fun while making a difference? Join us on September 23rd for our first annual “KICKIN’ HUNGER” soccer golf fundraiser at the Cornwall Golf and Country Club. It’s easy! Gather a team of 4 to 6 friends, colleagues, family members or sport mates. Name and register your team and obtain a kick off time by calling 613-938-9297 ext. 25 or 27 or emailing info@agapecentre.ca. Collect pledges and come out to have some fun. Lots of great prizes to be won. Register today and help us make sure that no man, woman or child goes hungry this summer!

Come and join us for a fun night of Euchre.  No partner required. There is a prize for the winner with the most points. Only $25 and includes your meal! Contact Johanne Couture at jcouture@agapecentre.ca or by calling 613-938-9297, ext. 27 to register.

The idea behind the event is that after sharing a meal, everyone will go home with a beautiful but empty pottery bowl – serving as a reminder of those in our community who go hungry. We are bringing the popular fundraiser to Cornwall for the first time.

Date: Sunday November 13
Location: upstairs at the Agapè Centre
Time: Three sittings: 11am, 12pm and 1pm
Tickets: $30 for sale at Scotiabank (690 Brookdale Ave., Cornwall)

Event-goers get to choose a unique handcrafter bowl, fill it with gourmet soup by local chefs paired with a fresh bun and apple crisp for dessert. After sitting and eating the meal with friends, each guest takes home their one-of-a-kind bowl, all for a $30 ticket.

 

Click here for more details

Join the Facebook event at: www.facebook.com/centreagapecenter/events

For one week, food banks and their supporters across this bountiful country are using their collective voice to amplify the message: yes, hunger lives here in Canada – in our cities, villages, counties, and in our neighbourhoods.

Hunger Awareness Week raises awareness of the solvable problem of hunger in Canada. Food banks across the country hold events to tell the story of the work they do, and the stories of hungry Canadians assisted by food banks.

There is hunger in Canada

Food banks have been helping more than 800,000 people each and every month for the better part of the past 15 years. In 2015, over 850,000 people were assisted each month by a food bank in Canada. Of those helped, 37% were children and 90,000 turned to a food bank for the first time. Locally, the Agape Centre helps more than 1,200 people a month through the food bank, and serves a nutritious and delicious meal to more than 100 people every weekday.

There is hunger in Canada because…

Too many Canadians do not have enough income to pay for rent, bills, clothing for growing children, transportation, medication – and food. Food is, unfortunately, one of the most flexible household expenses, and it is often nutrition that suffers when money is tight.

It’s Time to Draw the Line on Hunger

Hunger in Canada is a significant issue. Which is why it’s so critical to dedicate a week to talk about it and work together to make a change. Hunger Awareness Week, September 19-23, 2016 is a week for communities and individuals across Canada to take action in reducing hunger. You can draw the line on hunger and make a positive difference.

Who uses a food bank?

Hundreds of thousands of Canadians use food banks because they do not have enough money to feed themselves or their families. Children. Seniors. People with disabilities. People who have jobs and still can’t make ends meet.

Learn more about Hunger Awareness Week.

To help our food bank, please consider donating President’s Choice gift cards so that we can purchase healthy and fresh foods.

The local chip stand icon is celebrating 60 years of fries with some special deals on Sunday August 21 from 11am to 6pm.

Owner Mike Allaire will give away 60 t-shirts to lucky customers at the top of every hour.

And there will be a hint of nostalgia: Séguin Patate will bring back the 25¢ fry cone for the day.

Allaire remembers the old days of summer with Séguin Patate chip trucks ringing their bells up and down the streets of Cornwall. He hopes the fry cone will bring people back to the delight of sucking up every last drop of vinegar out the bottom of the cone…once the fries were devoured of course.

All proceeds from the following celebration specials will be donated to the Agapè Centre:

•  Mini donuts, $2/dozen
•  $2 Hot dog and drink combo
•  25¢ fry cone
•  60¢ ice cream cup

“Cornwall’s been my hometown for 53 years. I’ve got a pretty good business going,” said Allaire. “I’m feeding a lot of people here, but a lot of people are going hungry. So I’m giving back from what I have.”

It’s not the first time Allaire has supported the Agapè Centre. He hosted free hot dog days for the charity last year which raised over $800, and he dropped off a generous truck load of food at Corus Feeds Kids stuff the bus event this past June.

We’re really grateful for the support Mike has given over the years. Third party fundraisers like this are a huge help to keeping our shelves stocked with good food – especially during summer months.

Allaire partnered with other local businesses to help with the event.

“The food cupboard is in much need. I thought this was great idea,” said Bob Stevenson, Store Manager of Wholesale Club.

Wholesale Club is supplying drinks, ice cream and volunteers to help serve up the grub – and even helped with the planning.

“Agapè is an integral part of Cornwall and Séguin Patate is an integral part of Cornwall. The Wholesale Club is affiliated with both parties and we just wanted to do our part in celebrating the 60th anniversary and letting Agapè benefit from Mike’s goodness,” said Yvon Larocque, Assistant Store Manager of Wholesale Club. “We’ve all been affiliated with Agapè at some point and to some degree. It’s just a win-win.”

Allaire thanks Cardinal Meats for supplying the hot dogs and Betty Bread for donating the buns.

Séguin Patate is located at 921 Marlborough St N.

Help us stuff this bus with food!

Fresh Radio 104.5 and Boom 101.9 are partnering with Cornwall Transit to host a food drive for us on Friday, June 10th. The bus will be parked in front of City Hall (360 Pitt Street) from 6 am to 7 pm.

We want to stuff every seat, cover every window, and block the emergency exit – so grab some non-perishable food and help us out!

The Agape Centre serves more than 1000 hungry people a month. Non-perishable and fresh food are greatly appreciated but items that are especially needed are rice, pasta and peanut butter. Please check the expiry dates on all your donations.

Fresh and Boom will be on site from 6am to 7pm, so come down with your donation! The stations will be broadcasting live, and will have some swag to hand out. With your donation, you can enter to win a pair of tickets to RBC Bluesfest in Ottawa on July 7th, featuring Billy Idol!

Right now we are most in need of:
Peanut butter
Pasta
Rice
Cereal
Canned tomatoes
Canned vegetables
Fresh fruits and vegetables
No child should ever miss a meal, so we’re doing something to make sure that doesn’t happen! Corus Feeds Kids!

What can you make with 1000 cans of tomatoes, 400 cans of corn, 200 cans of tuna and 100 cans of beans? You will have to wait until April 16th to find out!

For the first time in Cornwall, teams of engineers, builders, designers, students and supporters plus more than 8,000 cans of food will converge at the Benson Centre this spring for Canstruction®.

Canstruction® is an international charity competition in which teams compete to design and build giant structures made entirely from full cans of food. At the close of the competition all of the food is donated to the Agapè Centre.

We’re really excited to bring this international event to Cornwall. It’s a fun way to raise some food for the Agapè Centre, at a time of year when typically donations run low.

And we’re eager to see the creations the teams come up with.

Teams will begin building their cansculptures on Friday, April 15th and will work through the night to have their structures – which can be as large as 10 ft x 10 ft x 10 ft – ready for judging Saturday morning.

The structures and will be on public display for two weeks, beginning 8:00 a.m. on April 16 through to April 30.

We hope everyone will visit the Benson Centre to see all the cansculptures and vote for their favorite to receive the People’s Choice Award.

So far, eight teams have committed to the challenge: Bourgon Construction, St. Lawrence College, Lowe Gravelle & Associates/EFI, City of Cornwall, Professional Engineers Ontario, Rotary Interact Club, Agapè Centre, and WSP/Architecture49 Inc.

“Our group’s mission is to help the community of Cornwall in any way we can. We strongly agree that hunger is a pain no one should feel,” says Thomas Devaney, St. Lawrence College student with the CCSF team (Cornwall Community Support Force), a group of five from the Police Foundations program. “We’re quite excited about this event.”

Teams contend for a title in five categories: Structural Ingenuity, Best Meal, Best Use of Labels, Jurors Favorite, and People’s Choice. The winners locally will move on to the international competition.

There is still time to register. If you can dream up a design, make a plan, fundraise cans, and assemble a group for the build, the organizing committee will make sure you have an engineer to mentor you.

Community partners include Seaway Express, Baxtrom’s Your Independent Grocer, National Grocer, and No Frills.
Canstruction® is a fun way to help our neighbors so no one goes hungry.

You CAN make a difference. One can at a time.

Canstruction® is a non-profit organization in which teams of architects, engineers, construction firms and students compete to create giant structures made entirely out of canned food. After the event all food is donated to the local food bank. Canstruction® was founded in 1992 by the Society for Design Administrators and has since raised nearly 30 million pounds of food for local communities around the world. Canstruction® is one of the largest internationally recognized food drives of its kind. For more information, visit: cornwall.canstruction.org

Bushel or bag, hand-picked or store bought – it’s all welcome.

On Wednesday November 4, students from St. Lawrence College will be collecting apple donations at Pommier Square (corner of Pitt and Second streets) from 12pm to 5pm.

Students from the school’s Community Integration through Co-operative Education (CICE) program have organized the event as part of their field placement.

“It’s important to help the food bank give out fresh food,” said Alexandra Levac, SLC student helping with the project.

CICE is a two year certificate designed for adults who wish to further their educational/ vocational training in a community setting. This is the first year CICE is offered at the college’s Cornwall campus. A fundamental aspect of the program is community placement.

“This project is a wonderful opportunity for our students to further develop and practice workplace skills while at the same time raising awareness and empathy for others,” said Victoria Workman, professor at St. Lawrence College.

And we are thrilled to partner with the college for the food-raising event.

People love getting fresh treats like apples in their food bags. We won’t have any problem using up all of the fruit donated – either giving them away in grocery bags, or processing them to use in the soup kitchen.

Thank you Andre Pommier for letting us use Pommier Square!

Throughout the month of July, Séguin Patate, Cardinal Meats, and Betty Bread teamed up to give away free hot dogs to anyone who brought in a healthy food item or cash donation for the Agapè Centre.

The Monday ‘Hot Dog Days for Agapè’ at the locally famed chip stand brought in $950 and some cans of food, including generous cash donations from both Séguin Patate and Cardinal Meats.

“It’s for a good cause and it was fun doing it”, said Michel Allaire, owner-operator of the Marlborough Street eatery.

“We didn’t get too many food donations, but we sold close to 400 hot dogs,” he added.

The proceeds from any hot dogs purchased on the Mondays also went towards to the overall donation.

Both Allaire and Jesse Cardinal, sales manager from Cardinal & Son Wholesale Meats, were delighted with the community support.

“The Facebook stuff just flew around – we had a lot of shares and likes online,” said Cardinal.

We are so thankful to Michel and Jesse for organizing this fundraiser for us. The donations will help our food bank continue to feed many families in our community.

Pictured are: Michel Allaire, owner-operator of Séguin Patate, and Jesse Cardinal, sales manager from Cardinal & Son Wholesale Meats present a cheque to Gerry ten Brink, truck driver for the Agapè Centre.

You’ll be there for your poutine fix anyways, so why not get a hot dog, free with a donation to the Agapè Centre, too?

The locally famed chip stand has teamed up with Cardinal & Son Wholesale Meats and Betty Bread for ‘Hot Dog Days for Agapè’.

Every Monday in July (6, 13, 20, 27) Séguin Patate will give a free hot dog to anyone who brings in a can of tuna fish, or a box of whole wheat pasta or a cash donation for the Agapè Centre, from open to close (11am to 9pm).

Once a year, Michel Allaire, owner-operator of the Marlborough Street eatery, likes to do something through his business to give back to the community.

“We came across a windfall of hot dogs from Cardinal Meats that couldn’t be sold, so I thought this would be a good idea,” said Allaire. “They didn’t want to throw out good food and were willing to donate, so we’ll do the work.”

The proceeds from any hot dogs purchased on Mondays for the month will also go towards to the overall donation.

Jessie Cardinal, sales manager from Cardinal & Son Wholesale Meats, says the company works with the local food bank and soup kitchen on a regular basis, so she knew this event would help the charity.

“It just seemed like a good fit. It’s always nice to help out knowing that what you’re doing is going directly back into our community,” said Cardinal.

Betty Bread will provide buns for the hot dogs.

“We really appreciate this initiative, and are thankful that they chose us to benefit from the event,” said Alyssa Blais, Agapè Centre’s executive director. “Everything they collect will go directly into our food bank and will provide people in our community with good food to feed their families.

The non-profit organization relies on the support from the community through donations of time, food, money, clothing and other household items in order to run its services.

“We wanted the funds raised to go somewhere it’s needed in the community, and the Agapè Centre is one of the best I’ve seen,” said Allaire.