St. Vincent de Paul Society of Guelph and Wellington County has been named as one of the four beneficiaries for the reimagined Bishop’s Dinner.
Each year for the past 19 years, the Wellington Catholic District School Board has organized the Bishop’s Dinner to raise funds to support organizations within the Guelph and Wellington community.
The St. Vincent de Paul Society is an international volunteer service organization in the Catholic Church. In Guelph, St. Vincent de Paul provides assistance to families from five of the city’s Catholic churches. Volunteers make connections with individuals and families to understand their needs and provide support through food vouchers that they can redeem at local grocery stores and/or clothing or furniture vouchers that can be redeemed at the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift store.
“The Thrift store in Guelph takes in donations and then sells them at reduced cost. This money is used to help conferences with funds to support the poor and social justice causes. A significant support that is provided through the store is new beds for those requiring them, especially those who are moving into housing, many from shelters or from the street who are setting up their new home,” shared Elaine Ferguson, Social Justice Representative at St. Vincent’s in Guelph.
Community members who receive support from St. Vincent de Paul are experiencing limited income, unable to work or find employment, homelessness, challenges due to mental health or addiction, seniors with limited income or medical issues, women and children fleeing domestic violence, or are refugees to Canada.
“St Vincent de Paul mission is built on a foundation of both charity and social justice. In Guelph, we are looking at ways to expand our focus on social justice. We focus on dealing with social justice on 3 levels - working with the individual, partnering with community groups to provide support to those who call us and at an institutional level where we work with the National Conference of St. Vincent de Paul to build awareness of the poor, the structural barriers and policies that maintain the cycle of poverty, obtain educational resources, advocacy for the poor and support programs such as the National Housing Campaign,” she shared. “At each level we look at removing the barriers that keep individuals and families in the cycle of poverty and move them from just surviving to situations where they can thrive. Also, when needed we can refer them to free legal advice.”
In 2020, the Guelph St Vincent de Paul conference served 927 adults, 607 children providing $129,013.00 in vouchers.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the donations that we receive that primarily come from the parishioners. With the churches closed for several months and having limited occupancy at other times, opportunities for requesting donations have been reduced. This has resulted in councils needing to limit some of the support that we can provide and how often,” she said. “We have increased our referrals to other agencies who get government funding. In addition, we are unable to visit inside their homes so most of the information we receive is over the phone therefore we are limited in engaging in conversation where other needs may be addressed.”
With community support from the Bishop’s Dinner, St. Vincent de Paul will continue to meet the needs of those in our community.
“We will use the money to help those conferences who have been most impacted financially by the pandemic and need additional funds to provide food vouchers. We are working on bringing into Guelph the “Seeds of Hope” Program where we will assist families with children to set up education funds so they can receive government money that is put aside for their children for post-secondary training. We are also increasingly partnering with other agencies such as the Drop-In Centre housing services,” she said. “We thank you for your generosity in helping our Society in Guelph and you can be assured your funds will be used to help those in need in our community.”
In addition to St. Vincent de Paul Society of Guelph and Wellington County, net proceeds will be directed to the Children’s Foundation of Guelph and Wellington, Canadian Mental Health Association – Wellington-Waterloo, and Centre Wellington Food Bank.
The annual Bishop’s Dinner will return in a reimagined hybrid format on October 21, 2021. To purchase tickets or provide a donation, please visit https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/guelph-community-foundation/events/2021-bishops-dinner-for-community-needs/.