Kerr Street Mission
485 Kerr Street L6K 3C6 Oakville, ON, Canada

We're celebrating Volunteer Appreciation Week by showcasing some of our volunteers milestones this year. Wajid has been volunteering at KSM for 5 years in the Market. Thank you Wajid for 5 great years. We are so grateful for you.

Thank you to everyone who helped to spread the word about our 2020 Christmas Wonders campaign by volunteering with us, donating to our cause or by displaying lawn signs on your property. We are so appreciative of all the support and it worked! We were able to bless over 1700 individuals with hope and joy this past Christmas season. For those of who that displayed the lawn signs, please feel free to keep the sign and display again later this year. Thank you again for your support. We are so blessed to have such a caring and generous community.

At the end of each year KSM receives hundreds of thank you notes, cards and letters from families we help throughout the year. They all express our client's deep appreciation for what KSM has provided for them in the previous year. These letter are priceless to us and we would like to share them with you. Thank you to all who donated to help those in our community struggling this year. We could never express in words how grateful we are for your support. The first image is ...an excerpt from a letter that sums up what most clients have to say. The full letter reads: "I am writing this letter to express my gratitude for all the support and help we have received from you in the last two years and to acknowledge the staff excellent services at Kerr Street Mission. My family have been receiving support from Kerr Street Mission since early 2019, 6 months after we arrived in Canada. Since then, we are using of the Food Bank services, Choose Fresh and for two years we have registered for the Christmas Wonders. Thanks to you, V (8) and A (5) will both have a Christmas gift they are asking for since June this year. We will also purchase mittens and hats to warm them up for this winter. Because of your generosity, we D and A we will be both able to get some pieces of clothes for this winter and to equip the place with basic furniture they were missing. All these three services are excellent, and we have been receiving very good quality and nutritious products throughout this time. Christmas Wonders is a program that astounds me, due to the great generosity involved. In addition to that, the volunteers and employees are very respectful and friendly, they are always with a beautiful smile on their faces. They are always very helpful and go above and beyond their scope to help anyone out. It was very pleasing for me to meet with them in a weekly basis. Thank you very much.

While Halton is in the grey zone it is still important for youth to remain social and connected to their community. With this in mind we are running a modified youth program for the next 3 weeks to accommodate the new guidelines. We will meet 3 times a week online through ZOOM and play a variety of online games together. The other 2 days of the week we plan to meet outdoors and go for some walks and do some outdoor games. All youth are welcome. Email [email protected] to RSVP to events or get more info and email or message here for zoom meeting links.

Kerr Street Mission is very grateful to have received over $37,000 in financial support through the Oakville Community Foundation’s GIVEOakville program. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Oakville Resiliency Fund held at the Oakville Community Foundation.

Our Executive Director, Gary O'Neill, was interviewed by Inside Halton for his opinion on what's in store for Oakville in 2021. Read it here:

For more than 17 years Kerr Street Mission has rallied the community together through our Christmas Wonders and Beyond program, to make sure families in need are able to celebrate Christmas well. Last year we provided a Christmas Wonder for 1,550 people, a 15% increase over the year before. This year the COVID pandemic has resulted in a steady increase in need so we are anticipating a larger than usual increase in the number of families who will need our support. We are asking for your help to make a difference for familles in need this Christmas. For more information and to donate visit: https://www.kerrstreet.com/christmaswonders/

International Child day was November 20th. It is a day that celebrates two historic events. The first being the signing of the United Nations (UN) Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959. The second being the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989. The combination of these two documents officially created, the UN Rights of the Child.By ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, Canada made a commitment to ensur...e that all children are treated with dignity and respect. In honour of this special day, Alpha's Discovery Kids wanted to celebrate and give back to the community. As part of their programming, they teach their children about being thankful , grateful and honouring others with recent calendar events such as Thanksgiving and Remembrance day. They wanted to continue to instil these concepts further by extending understanding towards empathy and compassion for others through relatable topics. Such amazing lessons. They launched their Kids helping Kids: Cuddle Up and Read - Pajamas, Blanket & Book Drive in support of Kerr Street Mission. They collected: 23 P.j’S, 17 blankets, and 40 books. Each child also made a wish for another child as they placed their donation into the collection box. We are so thankful of this giving spirt and teaching our little ones about true kindness and giving back.

Last call for these beautiful commemorative ornaments to add to your 2020 celebrations. We love this partnership with Oakville resident Tiffany Richardson and Round Trip Studios Custom Laser Engraving & Cutting who created this original ornament, with proceeds going to Kerr Street Mission and our Christmas Wonders program. Ornaments are only $15 each, and $2 of every ornament sold is going to Kerr Street Mission. To place your order - email:... [email protected] Get your order in today! They will ship across Canada! Thanks for your support.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Let's Haunt Hunger event that happened on Halloween! Let’s Haunt Hunger collected a total of 1218 lbs of food for the KSM market. It was a wonderful event to witness and showcased how truly wonderful and generous our community is. Thank you to Halton Environmental Network, Town of Oakville, Downtown Oakville, Longo's and Oakville Ready

Taking a moment today to honour the sacrifices of all who have served our country. Lest We Forget

We’re all looking forward to celebrating the joy and love of Christmas this year in the midst of the pandemic. Unfortunately, so many in our community are struggling and they can only hope to provide the bare necessities over the holidays. For more than 17 years Kerr Street Mission has rallied the community together through our Christmas Wonders and Beyond program, to make sure families in need are able to celebrate Christmas. Our fundraising goal is to raise $450,000 thi...s year, and currently we have raised $150,000. We are anticipating a larger than usual increase in the number of families who will need our help this Christmas. Please support us. To donate, please visit: https://www.kerrstreet.com/christmaswonders/ See more

We are so excited to be part of Oakville Community Foundation #GIVEOakville! GIVEOakville is an online crowd-funding platform that with the help of your generous support, we will be able to achieve our fundraising goal. See below for information about our programs. Help us to get over the finish line and donate today: https://ocf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create?grant_id=8543

We had a great time last Friday celebrating Halloween with our youth at the Halloween Spooktacluar. We carved pumpkins, watched a movie and youth came dressed up. Prizes were given out to the best costume, best and most creative pumpkin carving and of course much candy was given out to all those who came out!

COVID-19 ALERT - November 9,2020 Kerr Street Mission (KSM)has been notified that a staff member has tested positive for COVID-19. To ensure the safety of all staff, volunteers and the community members we serve KSM will be closed until Thursday November 12th, with programming restarting on Friday.... We will be taking every precaution to ensure that the facility is safe before reopening. All staff will be tested and as an added precaution we will conduct a complete sanitizing procedure. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. https://www.kerrstreet.com/

We are so thankful for our friends at the Civitan Club of Oakville. This is the second time in the last few months one of their members has dropped by and surprised us with a $5,000 donation from the club in support of KSM’s Food programming. We love their hearts of compassion for those that are in need!

Calling all youth! Come celebrate #Halloween at KSM this Friday, Oct 30 7-9PM. Anyone wanting to join us please sign up by emailing: [email protected] See you soon!

Tucked behind the Upper Oakville Shopping Centre on 5,000 square feet of land is the Blueberry Fields Community Garden. When Ken Stockstill was asked by the owners to build a garden there 4 years ago he agreed, but only if all the food was given to food banks. Ken has a team of volunteers who help him care for the garden and the public is welcome to walk along the paths. Kerr Street Mission clients’ have benefited from the fresh produce for the last four summers. This year included bounties of potatoes, cabbage, carrots, beans and of course blueberries. Thank you Ken for being an incredible community member as well as Upper Oakville Shopping Centre and all the volunteers who help upkeep the garden.

We're so grateful for another great food drive in support of KSM organized by OakvilleReady and the Town of Oakville ‘Let’s Haunt Hunger’ is a Halloween-themed, safe, contactless food drive to collect non-perishable items for KSM. Join them on Oct 31 for a great way for our community and kids to help others while having fun at the same time! The event is on October 31 from 9 am to 1 pm at two locations. ... A drive-thru event will be located in the back parking lot of Longo's at 469 Cornwall Road and a walk-thru food drive in Towne Square on Lakeshore Road in Oakville. Wear a costume and/or dress your car up and to be entered in the costume contest with the chance to win some great prizes! Come up and give back to the community as we 'haunt' hunger! If you want to get more involved they are also asking for volunteers to come out and help with the event email [email protected] for more info. Please spread the word in your community!

This is unique time for our kids and youth as they return to school. Some are continuing their education online while some are back in class, full and part time. We know this is a difficult time for families and KSM wants to help. This time can be extra challenging to help your child with their homework, especially if you are a parent is working from home or there are other children in the house. For some youth in high school it may be difficult to focus on their studies d...ue to the many distractions of being at home. For others access to technology and constant internet use is a challenge. For these and many other reasons KSM’s Youth Program has tutors, quiet study spaces, free internet and technology use available to you. For more information or to book at time in our space or with someone who can help your child with their homework please email [email protected] or call (905) 320-5922 x222

We are BUSY and as you can see we are also so blessed to have teams of regular volunteers to help keep KSM running smoothly. These volunteers come every week just to help organize and sort food donations. Thank you to everyone who comes together for this community. From the donors, the volunteers and employees that care so deeply for our neighbours in need. We are grateful.

Last week was Apple Day at Cumis Insurance and The Co-operators in Burlington and KSM was the lucky recipient of their bounty of fresh picked apples! For over 25 years CUMIS employees have picked and donated thousands of pounds of apples from its 15-acre orchard to support local community organizations. Their impressive orchard has a variety of cooking and eating apples. Empire, Golden Delicious, McIntosh, Mutsu, Red Delicious and Spy adorn the organization's 500 apple trees. Thank you to all who were involved, there's nothing like a fresh picked apple in the Fall!

KSM is already preparing for Christmas! Our staff and key volunteers had a physically distanced meeting in September to make sure we will be prepared for Christmas. With the number of people benefiting from our food bank up 58% over the last year we know the need will be greater than ever this Christmas. The extra challenge of the COVID safety protocols will also add some new complexities but we are committed to providing for our community so we have started preparations early. Stay tuned for more information!

Happy Thanksgiving Friends. Enjoy your time with loved ones. KSM will be closed today, see you tomorrow.

Thanksgiving 2020 looks a lot different from previous years but we still have so much to be thankful. At KSM we are so grateful to a community who continually strives to give back and create change for any of our neighbours in need. Our hearts are full as we see posts pour in from folks who took time this week to make sure no one went hungry on this holiday where we celebrate the bounty of our earth. Thank you from the bottom of our heart to everyone who has helped shoulder... the weight of these uncertain times. Happy Thanksgiving friends.

It is always great to see John of FleetOptics here at KSM. John and his team have volunteered many times to help in the market and donated to KSM as well. When COVID hit Fleet Optics stepped up to help right away and today John returned with a donation to continue supporting the community. We are so grateful to all of the donors that have given generously to make sure we could care for all those in our community that are struggling to makes ends meet. We've seen the need at KSM double in the last 6 months and we are so thankful that those who are able have stepped up to help. We're all in this together

We are so thankful to be part of Oakville Galleries second t-shirt fundraiser in collaboration with Wei Yan's Youth Art Studio. Consistent with the message of Take Care of Each Other, the design is based on the pictographic forms of , the Chinese translation of Take Care of Each Other. This artistic concept was facilitated by Mr. Yan and showcases the work of four students from his studio, Karen Tong, Andrew Ye, Tina Qin and Alex Xiong from Oakville and Burlington. ... We love the message ‘Take care of each other’ as Kerr Street Mission is a great example of the community caring for each other. All proceeds from the t-shirt sales will be divided to support Kerr Street Mission, Oakville Galleries and Hamilton Arts Council's Hamilton Artists Relief Fund. Get this exclusive tee over at Maker's Mojo in downtown Oakville or place an order here: https://oakgalleries.entripyshirts.com/

Our KSM 2020 Fall update is here! Copies have been mailed out so look for it in your mailbox to hear how we have responded to Covid-19 and where we plan to head in the coming months. Look inside the report for a sustainability update, as well as information on how all of our core programs have adapted in this new reality. We are so thankful for all the donors, partners and volunteers that have joined us this year to help fill our greater need. The pandemic has shown us how ...truly kind and generous our community is. If you don’t receive a copy of our 2020 Fall Update please pick one up at KSM or head to our website to read online https://www.kerrstreet.com/publications/ See more