Lighthouse Mission's desire to bring food, friendship, hope, joy and love to those in need does not take a summer vacation.

Unfortunately, over the summer months, donations decline to non-profit organizations like Lighthouse Mission.

Beverly Ajtay, Operations Manager of the Mission, says, "People are going on holidays and with the warm weather, they almost forget about those who are struggling with poverty and crisis and maybe living on the streets here in Winnipeg because the weather is nicer.

"It's not a safe place for people to sleep outside," says Ajtay. Lighthouse MIssion says that the need for their services remains through the summer, and can often pose new challenges as they help the Point Douglas community stay cool, hydrated and out of the sun.

Formally launched at the beginning of August, Lighthouse Mission's Empty Plate Fundraiser aimed to raise $100,000 to keep the shelves stocked for the mission to provide meals while continuing to meeting basic operating costs.

$100,000 represents just a few months of programming at the Mission. "It costs us $500 a day just to provide lunch for people. All said and done, it's about $800 to $1000 a day to provide meals to people at Lighthouse Mission," says Ajtay.

To date,  just over $13,000, with an additional $6,000 pledged yet to come in. 

"This is leaving us in a precarious situation going into fall," says Lighthouse Mission's Operations Manager, Beverly Ajtay. "We are falling behind on our budget financially with the drop in donations over the summer, and this initiative not providing the boost we had hoped for."

Lighthouse Mission is currently serving an average of 11,000 meals each month to a Winnipeg community that is often forgotten and struggle to access other services because of some of the challenges they face such as addictions.

The meals bring folks off the street and into the Mission's doors, but it is the lasting change and hope they give that changes peoples' lives.

 

Ajtay tells one story of one woman who first came to the mission in 2006 as a 15-year-old  single mother. Since her first steps in the door, she was provided resources that gave her confidence to get her own place, go to university for her bachelor's degree, and now is a mother of two with a government job that she loves.

The soup kitchen feeds 300 people a day throughout the week, providing food, warmth, friendship, spiritual guidance and support to Winnipeg's less fortunate. While donations of food do come in to help provides these services, Ajtay says they are not enough: "If we relied on donations of food to provide these meals, it wouldn't happen.

"We purchase a lot of the food that we need to provide these meals. Even though we are able to buy it in bulk quantities at a better cost, that's still a huge expense to us each month."

For more information on the Empty Plate Fundraiser and to donate, visit lighthousemission.ca.