By Michelle Poirier
After almost two years of providing breakfast to students and families in need, the Georgina Pop-Up Breakfast Club is being transferred to the Georgina Community Food Pantry to continue its work.
The Breakfast Club was co-founded by Emilee Elliott, Yasmine Stetieh and Erin Brimble in March 2020, and was recognized with the “Non-Profit Leader of Character” award by the Character Community Foundation of York in 2021.
“Starting in February, the Food Pantry will be distributing similar bags, but it will be monthly rather than bi-weekly, but the contents will be more,” said Elliott, the Pantry’s board co-chair.
“The bag you received this week or next will be the last bag that we deliver to you. Starting in February, you can pick up your breakfast bag from the Pantry (at The Link on Dalton Road, in Sutton).
If you are already a Pantry client, you will automatically be offered a bag at your regularly scheduled appointment. If you are not a client, reach out to the Pantry to schedule a day for pick-up. It’s that easy,” the Breakfast Club’s Facebook posting reads.
One major challenge, according to Elliot, is the Pantry is not set up to deliver the bags.
“We hope that, if people really need it, that they’ll figure out a way to come get it. Or we can help with Routes (Connecting Communities) or other ways to get them to the Pantry to pick up the bags,” she said.
Elliot said the transfer was necessary because the Breakfast Club was no longer sustainable.
It was not a registered charity, making it difficult to secure funding, and going to the store, buying the food, packing 125 bags a week, and delivering was a lot for a few volunteers.
“As we close next week, we will have delivered just over 12,000 bags,” she said.
“Thank you to all of the community members and organizations who believed in us. It’s been almost two years, 12,000 bags; we had a lot of funding directly from local businesses and individuals. We would not have been able to do this and provide the service without them,” she said.
Elliot is optimistic about the future for the Breakfast Club; she said the Pantry would continue the service and evolve the program.
It will now be permanently housed at the Pantry and be renamed the Georgina Breakfast Club. The new team will run the group’s social media pages starting in February.
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