Be An Angel: Food bank helping parents provide positive childhoods

Photo: Contributed

Castanet is proud to partner with the Central Okanagan Food Bank on their 27th annual 'Be An Angel' campaign. Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing the stories of local residents helped by the organization.

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Corey has been a client of the Central Okanagan Food Bank sporadically since 2017. Over the last few years, he has built a humble life with his fiancé and young daughter. However, growing up Corey’s life looked very different than it does today.

Corey was forced to raise himself throughout the course of his childhood and youth as his father left the family when Corey was young, and his mother suffered from serious mental illness. After living in a perpetually negative environment and suffering from a lack of emotional support and encouragement from his parents, Corey went down a dark path.

Once Corey hit his early 20’s he decided he wanted to pursue a happier and healthier lifestyle. On his pursuit to happiness, he found art. Creating art can be a beautiful healing tool and it eventually led him to meet his now fiancé. The couple both work multiple part time jobs to make ends meet but hope to one day own an art studio of their own.

Since the cost of living has drastically increased, Corey can no longer afford a car and uses Kelowna Transit to collect the family’s groceries from across town. A health condition has made it so he cannot properly process red meat, but the staff and volunteers always ensure that his hamper is created to meet his health needs. With the help of the Central Okanagan Food Bank, Corey can give his daughter the warm and positive childhood he never had.

You can Be an Angel three ways:

• Donate online at www.cofoodbank.com/BeAnAngel
• Call the Central Okanagan Food Bank at 250-763-7161 to donate by credit card, or
• Drop by the Central Okanagan Food Bank office 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Friday to donate by cash, cheque, debit, or credit card

Donations are accepted Dec 1st until Dec 31st. The Thomas Alan Budd Foundation will match all individual donations by 20% (excluding corporate, foundations and estate gifts) up to a maximum.