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Lowe’s Canada presents $12,247 donation to Helping Hand Food Bank

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Lowe’s Canada has announced the results of a highly successful Heroes Campaign.

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More than $1.5 million was distributed this year to more than 235 partner organizations in Canada thanks to associates’ efforts and customer generosity. This year’s campaign had the greatest participation yet from the Lowe’s Canada network, including eight distribution centres and 71 RONA affiliated dealer stores joining the Lowe’s, RONA, and Réno-Dépôt corporate stores.

In Tillsonburg, the Helping Hand Food Bank received $12,247 thanks to the support of their local RONA Moffatt & Powell store.

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“This is absolutely fabulous,” said Dianne Clark, Helping Hand Food Bank co-ordinator. “It’s a big surprise for us.”

Clark was impressed by the RONA Moffatt & Powell’s efforts, which included a silent auction, bake sale, and family festival fundraisers, as well as cash donations from customers.

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“As far as a representation from Tillsonburg, we were just blown away. We were so excited about it all. To have them do so many different activities, it was very, very kind and generous.

“We’ve heard about our doctors, our nurses, our paramedics, our police, our firefighters who are all heroes, but there are lots of other people out there who have carried on doing jobs and to me are just as much heroes,” said Clark. “I have a team of volunteers who have been plugging away for the last 19 months – non-stop – and to me they are heroes because they are thinking of others. They are putting in their time and effort, they enjoy it, and they are doing it without any complaint.”

The Lowe’s Canada/RONA donation, combined with a recent donation from the local Tim Hortons Smile Cookie Campaign (two Tillsonburg locations ranked No. 7 and No. 9 in Canada for Smile Cookie funds raised), should allow the food bank to purchase even more food than has been received in past Thanksgiving food drives.

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“We still want (food) donations, but this is just a different way of bringing in things for us – and it’s a different mindset too, that we can accept funds to purchase. Our purchase dollar goes further than the average person’s because we get different discounts.”

Helping Hands Food Bank will announcing a 12 Days of Christmas Giving, which will be held in conjunction with a Dec. 11 Cram The Cruiser event at Metro.

Starting Nov. 30, a list of items needed by the food bank will be released and donors can gather specific items each day up to the 11th. To make a 12 Days of Christmas Giving donation, Clark noted, you do not have to sing ‘On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me…’

“The OPP (Auxiliary) Cram The Cruiser events have been very successful and we’re going to look at continuing them next year because the OPP have dedicated themselves to doing this.”

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Clark said the plan is to have four Cram The Cruiser events spaced out far enough that when their shelves are starting to get low the food bank is not scrambling.

As COVID-19 restrictions lift, they might also be able to hold ‘theme’ food drives in conjunction with Cram The Cruiser.

“Valentine’s Day is one, and Mother’s Day. We would like to keep the momentum going so our shelves are never low.”

Each year, the Heroes campaign rallies the Lowe’s Canada network to fundraise for local non-profit organizations or public schools. As part of this campaign, associates from participating locations are invited to select an organization they wished to support and fundraise for the month of September. Lowe’s Canada then matches donations by 50 per cent, up to a maximum of $2,000 per location.

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“We’ve once again reached a new campaign milestone in terms of the number of participating locations this year, as a record number of distribution centres and affiliated RONA dealers joined forces with our corporate stores network,” said Jean-Sébastien Lamoureux, Senior Vice-President, Public Affairs, Asset Protection and Sustainable Development, in a media release.

“We couldn’t be prouder of our 2021 results and how our teams came together under challenging conditions to support worthy causes across the country. Thank you to our dedicated associates and generous customers for making it happen.”

For more information on the Heroes campaign, visit lowescanada.ca/heroes.

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