YORKTON – Employees of several Yorkton Co-op stores and donation recipients gathered at St. Mary's Cultural Centre on Jan. 26 to celebrate the success of Co-op's Good Buy to Hunger program.
"This program was initiated several years ago when Legacy Coop partnered with the Soup Haven to raise funds and provide food and goods throughout the year," said Bruce Thurston, General Manager of Yorkton Legacy Co-op in his address to those in attendance.
"This has proven very popular — very successful — and we've raised thousands of dollars," said Thurston, adding, "I believe in the last five years it would be over $100,000."
"We can't do this alone, so partnerships are formed with various groups in the communities we serve to give a hand out to those that need it from time to time," said Thurston, adding, "our Good Buy to Hunger program this year has partnered with a number of groups who do some great work towards food security in our communities."
Partnerships included the Soup Haven, Salvation Army, Society for the Involvement of Good Neighbours (Kamsack), Bruno's Place, Shelwin House and Churchbridge Public School: Snack Program.
"All of these groups will be sharing in the funds raised this past December," said Thurston.
"As we were going through the month of December, a couple of us threw out a challenge to the staff – to raise more than $27,500 for the campaign," said Thurston, adding, "our members and staff raised $32,710 – as a reward they'll get to throw a pie in the face of a couple of us."
"The main goal of the campaign was to raise money for food security in our communities, but secondary – we wanted to have some fun with this."
