Do More Mondays - #60 - Windfall

It's getting cold out, please keep warm.

It warms my heart and raises my spirit knowing there are individuals in my city that strive for a better tomorrow. Joan Clayton and Ina Andre created 'Second Harvest', a food recovery program, more than 25 years ago. In 1991, drawing from their previous success, they founded 'Windfall' ~ a clothing and basic-needs item distributor to a hundred partnering social service agencies in the Greater Toronto Area.

Providing new donated clothing and other basic-needs items, Windfall distributes these items social service agencies for the purpose of alleviating poverty and fostering human dignity. Partner agencies are geographically represented and work with a broad cross-section of people including: the homeless, abused, families living in poverty, those affected by AIDS, at-risk youth and single mothers, immigrants and refugees, recovering substance abusers, people with disabilities, among many others. A comprehensive list can be found here.

This is an integral and crucial social service. Windfall assists in fosters a sense of belonging, opens doors to employment, independence and a better life. The effects on a person's sense of pride, importance, self-esteem and self-worth are immediate. Last year they served 64,000 people in the GTA - over a third were children - with over 900,000 pieces of new items collected valued at more than $28 million retail. MoneySense Magazine (Summer 2010) rated Windfall as Canada's most cost-efficient agency in the social service category; with every $1 spent to operate they put $56 worth of items to an individual in need.

I challenge anyone to do more.