A few weeks ago I met up with Mikey Scott, Global Marketing Director of Vancouver-based Herschel Supply Company, to feature him in my 50 Coffees series and introduce you to this fairly new brand that I love. Herschel makes bags and accessories that you may have seen around town, or in magazines, or most recently in any of the Apple stores. They're good stuff.
At the end of our meeting Mikey put it out there that they're interested in helping out the local community, and that they would love to collaborate if I had any ideas on how they might do that. I instantly thought of the Strathcona Community Center Backpack Food Program and how I would love to see a bunch of Herschel bags put into the hands of kids who benefit from it. Mikey was down and offered up 30 bags as a donation. And of course it would make a whole lot of sense if those bags were filled with healthy food, as the Program's aim is to send kids in Canada's poorest postal code home with some each and every week. So I made a call to my friend Joel Solomon (who was, not coincidentally, another 50 Coffees subject of mine) and he put me in touch with his friends, the kind folks at Nature's Path, and within days they sent us enough food to fill 30 backpacks to give to kids who need it most.
All photos: Laurin Thompson
My secret plan - beyond being a connector between these generous brands and people in need - was to use this as an opportunity to instil the value of giving in my 3 year old son. Eight months ago I shared THIS STORY about his giving toys to kids in need through the Christmas Wish Pancake Breakfast at the Pan Pacific and since then my wife and I have been using every opportunity we can to continue to teach him the value of giving. We warmed him up for days beforehand, letting him know that he and his friend Sadie (our Playground editor, Laurin Thompson's, 3 year old daughter) were going to help fill some backpacks full of food and then drop them off for some kids who need it more than they do.
So we went to Herschel's office where the bags and the food were waiting, and we packed them all up.
Sadie and her mom Laurin and dad Court (who is our new Sports editor!) helped, as did Mikey and a few of his kind staff at Herschel.
After packing a lot of great bags with a lot of great food we took a break for cuteness in front of them!
Then we loaded all of the bags up and took them to the Community Centre.
If you've been paying attention to the blog this week you'll already know that Ford Canada loaned me a 2013 Ford Flex and I used it to MOVE A TABLE. These bags wouldn't have fit into the small car we own but they fit quite easily into the back of the Flex, so thanks are due to Ford for supplying us with a vehicle to transport this stuff with.
The kids helped unload the bags...
And like elves in the night, they dropped them into the front office. It took a few trips like this one, as there were a lot of bags and there was actually a bunch of extra food in boxes that didn't fit into them.
When they were all done we carted them out of there!
It felt great, and we succeeded in teaching our kids the value of giving while also helping a couple of awesome local companies support some other kids who need help the most. A huge thank you to Herschel Supply, Nature's Path and Ford Canada for allowing us to do this.
The Strathcona Community Center Backpack Food Program's aim is to help improve the lives of inner-city children from families that have the lowest median incomes in all of the country and don't have reliable or consistent access to nutritious food staples. If you're interested in helping by donating food (they ALWAYS need donations) click HERE to find out more.
