Volunteering is when you do something for others without pay.
Why Volunteer?
- Volunteers build better communities
- Volunteering gives you something to do with your spare time
- At the same time it greatly helps others who are less fortunate than you
- By becoming a volunteer you will see how fortunate you are compared to many in and around your community.
- Without volunteers many people in your community will go without and many charities would not be able to function since they depend on volunteers.
- Volunteers also gain valuable experience and develop new skills. Volunteer hours can contribute to job satisfaction and can open new horizons in your career.
- Volunteering has positive benefits for the volunteer as well as for the person or community served
- Studies show that involved Canadians enjoy an improved overall health. When you feel good about doing for others it will impact your overall health. Also we tend to worry less about our own problems when we are doing for others!
More than half of Canada’s 161,000 non-profit and charitable organizations have no paid staff and rely solely on volunteers. 13.3 million volunteers contribute 2.1 billion hours annually. Imagine what your community would look like if all that went away?
(Canada Survey on Giving, Volunteering and Participating, 2010.)
According to the 2007 Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering, and Participating, 47% of Ontarians over the age of 15 volunteer on average 164 hours per year.
There are many ways you can do volunteer work, here are just a few examples:
- An increasingly popular form of volunteering is to travel to communities in third world countries to work on projects. Activities include teaching English, working in orphanages, conservation, and so on. Many seniors find this is a great thing to do for a few weeks or month once they retire.
- Work at your church: the ministers can only do some of the work and most churches depend on the volunteers to keep it functioning.
- The neighbourhood schools: Teachers can always use some help with our young. Volunteering in schools can be an additional teaching guide for the students and help to fill the gap of local teachers.
- The Hospital: there are many sick people in our world today and there are not enough staff to do for them so you can help in many ways to ease the load of their caregivers.
- Habitat for Humanity: Their mission is to mobilize volunteers and community partners in building affordable housing and promoting homeownership as a means to breaking the cycle of poverty.
- Senior Communities: there are many seniors who have no family and cannot care for themselves – just think what it would mean to them to have a new friend!
- Big Brother/Sisters: helping kids who have nobody to do things with
- There are many other charitable organizations who depend on volunteers to do their work.
Vegetarian Bean Chili
Nothing is better than a good healthy hot soup or chili on a cold Autumn or Winter day!
The Soup
makes 4-6 servings
In your saucepan sauté the following ingredients until they are tender:
- ½ cup of each: celery & onions (finely diced)
- 1-2 cloves of garlic (finely minced)
Add the following:
- 2 cups water
- 1 can organic diced tomatoes (I use Eden or Muir Glen brands)
- 1 cup green beans (cut into 1” pieces)
- ½ cup of each: lentils and chickpeas
- 1 small can kidney beans
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp curry powder
- Season to taste with sea salt
Simmer for 1-2 hours then serve hot.
I always start meals with a big salad followed with a healthy cooked food like this chili.
Survival Bar Sale
Save $4 on each box of Survival Bars*!
The following flavours are on sale for $33.95 while quantities last from October 15th – October 31st: Apple Surge, Blueberry Burst, Cinnamon Explosion, Cranberry Blast, Garden Fusion & Variety Pack.
*Excluding Original. On Phone or in-store orders only. While quantities last. No rain checks on out of stock items.
Please note that Shipping has gone back to the regular 10% or best available shipping rate through Canada Post.
