Breakfast with the 'Bank'

Over the past three years diocesan communications and Topic have offered ongoing coverage of The Anglican Parish of the Church of the Epiphany, Surrey’s (‘Epiphany’) desire to sell a portion of the parish’s lands in order to finance the demolition of the current 1970 building and build a new church.  The Surrey Food Bank (SFB) have been looking for a new location for seven years and for the past 18 months they have focused on being the prospective buyers of the property that constitutes the ‘Epiphany’ parcel. There is a lot of red tape to go through in order for this partnership to become a reality but the proposed project is still very much on the table.

There are designs in place for new buildings, and Diocesan Council and Bishop Skelton have approved the plans for the new ‘Epiphany’.  Although the formalization of the partnership between the two Surrey groups is still not finalized that did not prevent SFB’s Executive Director, Feezah Jaffer from inviting members of the ‘Epiphany’ building committee: Carla Kazemi, Doug and Carol Williams, and rector, the Reverend Stephen Rowe to sit at her table at Breakfast with the Bank. Rev. Rowe was unable to attend so there was an extra chair for the diocesan communications officer.

Breakfast with the Bank is SFB’s principal fundraising event of the year and it was held at the Bombay Banquet Hall in Newton, bright and early, 7 am on the morning of May 10. This was the 16th Annual Breakfast with the Bank event and it was attended by members of all three levels of government and a who’s who of Surrey’s community and business leaders.  There were very few empty seats at the dozens of large round tables in the banquet hall.

The messaging created in collaboration with Ms. Jaffer and her team by Thornley Creative Communications (also a Breakfast with the Bank corporate sponsor) is quite simple, SFB consists of “People Like You” and that includes: donors, volunteers and clients.  The principal message, “Be The Change” is pulled from Gandhi’s famous quote, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” For the 35 years that SFB has been in existence it has never received any core funding, everything comes from donations and Thursday morning’s event was focused on fundraising and a celebration of “new beginnings and opportunities.”

The MC was Senior Meteorologist for Global BC and avid SFB supporter, Mark Madryga, taking a one day hiatus from his regular job on the Global BC TV Morning News. Mark also sat at Feezah Jaffer’s table which made Doug and Carol Williams feel particularly comfortable as Mark and his family are their neighbours in the area where they have a vacation property.

The event lasted exactly 60 minutes and included inspirational speeches and the presentation of a number of corporate and community group donations including those from: Surrey Firefighters Charitable Society; RBC Foundation; Tzu Chi Canada Foundation; Century Group Canada; TD Bank.

The cover of the printed program for the event bore this quote from the Dalai Lama, “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.” Please keep ‘Epiphany’ and ‘SFB’ in your prayers as they continue in their quest to partner together to serve others and “Be The Change.”  

LINKS

July 5, 2017 Article on the Diocesan Website news pages about the potential partnership

Feezah Jaffer's June 28, 2017 interview in the Surrey Now-Leader

IMAGES

• Carla Kazemi, Feezah Jaffer, Doug and Carol Williams
• Carol laughs and Doug looks on during Mark Madryga's opening words of welcome
• Carol Williams and Mark Madryga
• Filling out pledge/donation cards
• Carla in profile in front of Carol and Douglas speaking with a Surrey Firefighter