Photo: flickr user N i c o l a

During preparation for our 2013 Holiday Grocery, a supporter of the program helped connect us to Tree of Life. As one of the largest distributors of specialty and natural foods in Canada, they generously contributed five pallets of organic cereal to our Holiday Grocery event. It really made a huge difference.

Recently, Kevin Street from Tree of Life reached out to me once again with an additional donation of organic cereal and beverages to share with the Grocery program. That’s over five thousand pounds of awesome!

During our conversation, Kevin spoke about his work as a committee member with Canada Cares, a program of Tree of Life that looks for opportunities to help charities. Having developed a relationship with AIDS Vancouver through our Grocery Program, he asked me what some of our greatest needs are. Luckily, a recent survey of Grocery Patrons identified milk alternatives as highly desirable, as we serve a number of folks who are lactose intolerant and are not able to use the regular milk that we offer. Milk alternatives such as lactose free, almond or soy milk are more expensive than our limited budget can manage.

Kevin took it to the committee at Canada Cares and they all agreed that the Grocery program is worth their support. As such, they have incredibly agreed to supply a milk alternative for an indefinite amount of time. We received our first shipment today!

This is so incredibly meaningful to our patrons with allergies or dietary restrictions. With all the stress of meeting everyday needs, this is now one less thing that they need to worry about!

As stated on the Tree of Life website:

“Together everyone achieves more. These are more than just words within our organization; they are a way of life. Our success is built on the strength of our partnerships. By supporting our associates and our partners – suppliers, retailers, and consumers - we all succeed.”

These are values we share, and clearly it IS more than just words to both Tree of Life and Canada Cares! They are living it and on behalf of AIDS Vancouver and our Grocery program patrons, we wish to send out a huge thank you!

For more information about Tree of life website: http://treeoflife.ca/