The Cloverdale Community Kitchen received a big cheque March 15.
The people behind the new Chronicle condominiums development on 177B Street 56A Avenue in Cloverdale raised $9,600 for the Kitchen through unit sales.
Aman Dhillon, principal director for Tangerine Developments, said they wanted to give back to the community and thought donating to a local charity was a good place to start.
“It’s something we’ve always wanted to do,” said Dhillon. “Our project in Cloverdale has 48 units and we thought, here’s an opportunity to collaborate with Fifth Avenue and give back.”
So Dhillon chatted with Yvonne Stengel, project marketing manager for Fifth Avenue Real Estate Marketing, and they came up with the idea to donate $100 each for each condo sold—which in the end totalled $9,600.
Dhillon said Stengel searched for a local charity and found the Cloverdale Community Kitchen.
When Dhillon and Stengel showed up at the Kitchen to deliver the cheque, they were pleasantly surprised to see the breadth of work the charity does.
“I didn’t know what to expect. I just thought (CCK) was a simple kitchen,” explained Dhillon. “But walking through the facility, and seeing the different programs that they run, showed me the amazing work they do.”
Dhillon added that he’s glad they could help out at this particular time as gas prices are soaring and the Kitchen is struggling with the costs of overhead for its meals on wheels program.
Both Dhillon and Stengel said they plan to continue their charitable work with each new project they work on.
“I hope we can do more when we do other projects around Surrey and give even more back to the community.”
Dhillon said part of that will be reaching out to local charities in each neighbourhood they build in.
Stengel also said it was important to give back locally.
“We wanted to help strengthen the local community,” said Stengel. “We’re going to continue to do this, not just tearing down and building up, but also giving back too.”
Matthew Campbell, director of the Community Kitchen, said the money could not have come at a better time.
“The number of people needing food has increased dramatically and so have our costs for getting the food out with our trucks,” Campbell explained. “We will be using the funds to pay for the trucks, and for gas, to pick up the food and serve hundreds of people from (our) food bank.”
Campbell was surprised when Dhillon and Stengel told him, seemingly out of the blue, they had a donation of nearly $10,000 for the Kitchen.
“(It) is so amazing when that happens and it helps us so much,” he said. “We are so grateful for this.”
Campbell said the Community Kitchen is very thankful to all the companies that want help them out.
“We have invited (Tangerine and Fifth Avenue) to come and serve a community meal with us and they will be doing that in the future,” he added. “There are always openings for companies and community groups to bring a group of people in to cook and serve a community meal.”
Visit mycck.ca, call 778-617-3000, or email info@mycck.ca for more info on any of their programs or to make a donation.
The Cloverdale Community Kitchen is located at 5337 180 Street.
editor@cloverdalereporter.com
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