Cast-A-Light

Soup to calm the soul
by Contributed - Story: 68305
Dec 12, 2011 / 7:00 am

If homemade soup is food for the soul, then there is much soul comfort to be found here, with three different soups on the simmer.

She whirls around the kitchen, a modern day Julia Child as she tells her story, while stirring, cleaning, stopping for a moment to emphasize a point before going off on a tangent, then coming back to finish the previous thought. Cindy suffers from a high anxiety disorder and her mind races, but her hands stay busy and focussed on the task while moving ahead to the next item of conversation.

A single mother with three children of her own, Dryden, 13, Devon, 15 and Dominic, 18, and her orphaned sister Nicole, 14, all under her roof, Cindy is a fierce protector and provider for her family. She is fortunate enough to have had some home equity and savings from her previous life in Calgary, and some family assistance helping to secure an affordable home in Kelowna, but now struggles to get by on a small disability benefit.

“I have just tried to find a way to be a really good mom through my cooking and cleaning and organization skills,” Cindy says, “and am thankful for the community resources we have here. The Kelowna Food Bank really cares. They have been great to me with their monthly hampers that really help stretch the food budget… there’s no prejudice, only respect. They are very giving and for that I am grateful.”

Cindy drops a bowl and as it shatters to the floor, she stoops to sweep up the pieces before they’ve barely landed, saying, “That’s the anxiety kicking in.” But it doesn’t seem to phase her and she goes on to explain how her own magical soup kitchen began. “Nicole came to me one night and said she needed to make clam chowder for a cooking class and I thought, how am I going to come up with clam chowder? I was about to tell her we couldn’t do it, but then I thought I can’t turn her down, so I said, 'Well, maybe we can come up with something.' So, we looked in the cupboard and there was this can of potatoes and can of creamed corn from the Food Bank. I thought, okay we can actually do this. I expected to have to go to the store and buy all the ingredients which I couldn’t afford to do, but all we needed was some seafood bits and I even put some leftover ham in that I had. Anyways, I was able to pull it together and make clam chowder, mostly from the food I had from the Food Bank, and I haven’t stopped making soup since.”

Today Cindy’s stove is bubbling away with a creamy seafood and bacon chowder, but come Christmas she tells me she’ll try one with chopped up turkey leftovers. She also has an aromatic ginger cinnamon butter squash puree going, and on the back burner is a potato sausage gumbo, which she says is the kids’ favourite.

“You know a can of soup is so expensive and I can make a five litre pot for about the same cost,” says Cindy. “And most of it I can prepare with what I get from the Food Bank. With four growing teenagers, yeah, I can really stretch my budget making my own soup… and it all started with a can of potatoes.”

As I’m packing up my notes to leave, Cindy hands me her own hand-written potato corn and bacon chowder recipe and says that it would be wonderful if the Food Bank could teach cooking classes and hand out recipes made with ingredients from our hampers. I smile at her and nod as I tell her that our friends at the Okanagan Chef’s Association have suggested that too, so maybe this will become a catalyst to help us get it started.

She tells me that a girlfriend is coming by with her baby for a soup tasting, but before I can go she makes me sit at the table and places three small bowls of today’s wonderful creations in front of me to sample. I have to say that the ginger cinnamon butter squash was, like its creator, amazing.

Cindy says, “I wish I could give more… I go to the Food Bank and my heart just goes out to the people around me because so many of them have it much harder than I do.” She is thankful to the Kelowna Food Bank and to the community that doesn’t judge her.

HERE’S HOW YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE:

Please indicate if you wish for your name not to be listed on Castanet along with your donation amount – we automatically list it if the donor does not indicate otherwise.

 

Make a donation on Castanet (www.castanet.net) CAST-A-LIGHT Campaign from now until December 31st, 2011. (A tax receipt will be e-mailed to you for donations over $10.)

 

Drop your CAST-A-LIGHT donation off at the Kelowna Community Food Bank at 1265 Ellis Street (Downtown Kelowna) between 9 AM and 4 PM, Monday-Friday.

 

Mail in your CAST-A-LIGHT donation to:

Kelowna Community Food Bank

1265 Ellis Street, Kelowna, BC

V1Y 1Z7

Phone: 250-763-7161

Fax: 250-763-9116

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Help us reach our goal of $50,000

Top Cast-a-light Donors

Personal

  1. Cast A Light Auction $7,404.63
  2. Barry Chase $4,000.00
  3. Anonymous $2,139.12

1-25 Employees

  1. Pihl Law Corporation $1,000.00
  2. J Kirby And Co. $600.00
  3. Pandosy Street Developments Ltd $500.00

26-50 Employees

  1. Kel West Carriers Ltd $1,200.00

76-100 Employees

  1. Competition Glass $625.00

Recent Challenges

  • Alana Marrington from Pandosy Street Developments Ltd. puts a challenge out (on behalf of Collett Manor) to all employees and past care recipients in the medical community, as well as those in the golf and hospitality industries.
  • Al Cosar from Kel West Carriers Ltd. puts a friendly challenge out to all transportation companies to match or better their $1200 Cast-A-Light donation.

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Cast-a-light Donors

  • Cast A Light Auction $7404.63
  • Barry Chase $4000.00
  • Anonymous $2139.12
  • Kelowna Pipe Band $2058.74
  • Gerald Goertsen $1500.00
  • Kel West Carriers Ltd $1200.00
  • David Flemming $1000.00
  • Pirjo Boucher $1000.00
  • Pihl Law Corporation $1000.00
  • Richard Skrapek $1000.00
  • Kenneth Phillips $1000.00
  • Nicola Consiglio $1000.00
  • Daryl Klassen $1000.00
  • Colin Axelson $1000.00
  • Competition Glass $625.00
  • J Kirby And Co. $600.00
  • William Farley $600.00
  • Stephen Netzlaw $600.00
  • Janet Morton $500.00
  • Jayne Brooks $500.00
  • Bruce Stone $500.00
  • Judith A Stringer $500.00
  • Bernard Morel $500.00
  • Jorin Wolf $500.00
  • Pandosy Street Developments Ltd $500.00
  • Mary Jane Slavin $500.00
  • Onsite Custom Software $500.00
  • Albert Chu $500.00
  • Joyce Brinkerhoff $500.00
  • Hugh Culver $500.00
  • Donald Greer $500.00
  • Pam Neveu $500.00
  • Shaundra Ihas $500.00
  • Bob Brandes $500.00
  • Tom Kuntz $500.00
  • Michael Sidoni $500.00
  • Cindy Roth $500.00
  • Brian Shepard $336.00
  • Thomas E Wyatt $300.00
  • Geri Davis $250.00
  • Tara Treadgold $250.00
  • Cecile OBrien $200.00
  • Alexander Campbell $200.00
  • Anonymous $200.00
  • Corey Doak $200.00
  • Brian Milligen $200.00
  • David Jones $200.00
  • Ricardo's Mediterranean $200.00
  • Joyce House Bed & Breakfast $200.00
  • Anne O'Keefe $200.00
  • James Berwick $200.00
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  • Sandra Backman $190.46
  • Leena Phillips $150.00
  • Loren Tottier $150.00
  • James Robinson $150.00
  • Steve Wahl $135.00
  • Norm Tearoe $125.00
  • Gary Stoutenburg $100.00
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  • Christina Coombes $100.00
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  • Richard Provost $100.00
  • Michael Delorme $100.00
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  • Dulce Fry $100.00
  • Leslie A Falk $100.00
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  • PKW Management $100.00
  • Chris Jenner $100.00
  • Christine Poirier $100.00
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  • Gayle Voyer $100.00
  • Lisa Michelle Taylor $100.00
  • Susan Ruck $100.00
  • Wendy Spence $100.00
  • Darryl Somcher $100.00
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  • Lynsay Pickard $50.00
  • Anonymous $50.00
  • Gordon Guild $50.00
  • Dana Kruiper $50.00
  • Karen Tymchuk $40.00
  • Joel Yanow $36.00
  • David Greenshields $30.00
  • George Grinnell $30.00
  • Ron P. Ruppel $25.00
  • Kelvin Giesbrecht $25.00
  • Carmen Perrett $25.00
  • Mary C Smith $25.00
  • Shelley Stoochnow $25.00
  • Michelle Kooistra $25.00
  • Wealth Win At Home $25.00
  • Roberta Snow $25.00
  • Griffen Seed $25.00
  • Minh Le $20.00
  • Starla Reynolds $20.00
  • Karen Emmond $20.00
  • Carling Benson $20.00
  • Christina D Shaak $20.00
  • Susan Ross $20.00
  • Dennis Bennett $20.00
  • Dixie Beardmore $20.00
  • Corey Sullivan $20.00
  • Adam Goodwin $15.00
  • Brett Slutker $15.00
  • Lydia Ross $10.00
  • Nicholas Mcparland $10.00
  • IKirsten Harrison $10.00
  • Lisa Fennell $10.00
  • Xavier Mendoza $10.00

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About Cast-A-Light

Castanet.net has partnered with the Kelowna Community Food Bank to raise much needed funds, food, and toys for children and families in our community.

Our goal this year is to raise $50,000 with all funds going to programs at the Kelowna Community Food Bank.

Your donation to the fifth annual Cast-A-Light Campaign will provide a brighter future for those less fortunate in our community.
The Kelowna Community Food Bank will acknowledge all gifts to the Cast-A-Light Campaign. Tax receipts are mailed for donations in the amount of $10 or more with addresses provided.

View a Shaw TV segment from our 2007 campaign:




About the Food Bank

The Kelowna Community Food Bank is a self-supporting non-profit organization, raising food and funds through donations, special events, community food drives and local and national sponsors. The Food Bank is operated by a volunteer board of directors, 8 staff members and more than 100 volunteers who contribute over 20,000 hours annually, providing essential services including food collection, distribution and sorting, hamper preparation, client assistance and referrals, and special event planning and fundraising.

The Kelowna Community Food Bank was established in 1983 to provide short-term support to Kelowna families and individuals in need of temporary assistance. Since then the mission has grown to help alleviate chronic hunger and poverty in the Central Okanagan by providing our clients with a 5 to 7 day supply of healthy food on a monthly basis. Annually, we serve more than 30,000 persons including nearly 10,000 children, distributing over $2 million in food.

The Kelowna Food Bank is a member of The BC Association of Food Banks and the Canadian Association of Food Banks (CAFB).

1265 Ellis Street
Kelowna, BC V1Y 1Z7

Phone: 250-763-7161
Fax: 250-763-9116
Email: info@kcfb.ca
http://www.kelownafoodbank.com/



Family profiles on this page have been provided by the Kelowna Community Food Bank.



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