The Surrey, B.C. Food Bank feeds 15,000 people per month and 41 per cent of them are children and babies. The team at Sutton Premier Realty regularly helps out on the front lines at the food bank. Every two months, a group of 10 salespeople commit to a four-hour shift.
“I usually have more volunteers than I need,” says Ron Clauzel, who has been organizing the project for his office. “Sometimes Realtors will bring one of their children with them as part of the school volunteering program. We always find it very rewarding and all of us, including the kids, have a lot of fun doing it.”
He says, “The 10 of us stand at separate stations and give out food that has been donated to the food bank by the public and major stores and suppliers. It could be bags of flour to sugar, to cabbages, to soft drinks, to cans of soup, to potatoes, to bread. We just never know what is on the menu for that day.
“During the course of those four hours, we see people from all walks of life who are in need and we are happy to help. It is a very rewarding four hours.”
The team holds food drives and, each Christmas, they sponsor families and provide baskets of food and gifts. As a non-profit, charitable organization, the Surrey Food Bank is only able to operate with donations such as those from Sutton Premier Realty.
