100 Women Who Care Mississauga—Helping Feed Hungry Kids
By Xanthe LeBlanc
100 Women Who Care Mississauga is a local community group of philanthropically-minded women who gather three times a year to raise money for local charities in need. Members are allowed to nominate local, Mississauga-based charities which have a pressing, immediate need that could be solved with a large, collective donation. Individually, members pledge to donate $100 three times a year, for a total of $300 each. At each gathering, called a Giving Circle, however, the membership votes on the charity that will receive the entire collective donation. This is called #ThePower of 100—the goal is 100 women, $100 dollars, $10,000 collective donation. Since its inception in April 2021, 100 Women Who Care Mississauga, while still building its membership, has donated over $35,000 to four charities serving the Mississauga community.
Last week, the Steering Team visited The Compass Food Bank & Outreach Centre to do the official cheque presentation from the June Giving Circle. The Compass received the most votes from the membership, based on their touching and heartfelt presentation about feeding kids during the summer vacation period. With the funds donated, $8500, The Compass was able to support the children in their community catchment area who are usually part of the schools’ breakfast and lunch program. Often, these children, who come from food-insecure backgrounds, go without while these programs are suspended for the summer, but as a result of the 100 Women Who Care Mississauga donation, 324 children felt no interruption to their meal support, receiving breakfast and lunch supplied by The Compass every day of the summer.
From Melinda Prain, Communications and Fundraising Manager for The Compass: “Thanks to the generosity of 100 Women Who Care Mississauga, The Compass Food Bank & Outreach Centre was able to provide kids summer snack kits to an average of 324 school-age children per week. Each kids pack included healthy snacks such as cheese strings, yogurt, fresh fruit and vegetables, healthy granola bars and more. The donation also enabled us to provide families whose kids are usually part of a school meal program with nutritious food for breakfasts and lunches. 100 Women—you made a big difference in a lot of families’ lives over the summer.”
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If you are interested in learning more and becoming part of this diverse and dynamic group of philanthropic women, there will be a Fall Info Session, held over Zoom, on Wednesday, September 28 at 7:30pm. The next Giving Circle will be held on Wednesday, November 9, in person at The Irish Club of Mississauga. Join now, and you can nominate your favourite local charity to potentially receive a donation of up to $10,000. Go to 100womenwhocaremississauga.com to register for the Fall information session or to join today.
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