In 2019, Virginia Worcester had $30,000 sitting in a bank account from a single fundraiser, and a decision to make. She could keep running her Christmas hamper drive the way she always had, or she could try something bigger: feeding kids on the weekends, when school lunch programs were not there to help them.
Six years later, that decision has grown into the Hands & Hearts Food Program, a fully volunteer-run operation that delivers food hampers to nearly 100 families across School District 69 every single month, with not one cent going to administration.
Virginia owns Borealis Hair Bar and Champagne Boutique in Qualicum Beach, and being in business since 1997 meant she already knew the communit.
Virginia has deliberatally protected the dignity of the families she serves. The program works through the school district so families never have to be identified to her directly. “It’s not written on their forehead,” she told me, describing how invisible food insecurity can be in a place like Parksville-Qualicum Beach.
The program went from supporting 75 families at the start of this year to 98 right now, and Virginia runs the entire fundraising operation herself. She has gotten creative, leaning on fashion shows and community events to keep the hampers full, because as she put it plainly, if the funds dry up, the program ends.
Virginia told me she hopes that five years from now, Hands & Hearts is still a grassroots organization, still reaching the families who need it. Given what she has already built from a single dance fundraiser and a stubborn refusal to let kids go hungry on weekends, I wouldn’t bet against her.
You can hear the full conversation with Virginia Worcester, including how the program partners with the school district and what it means to give a family their dignity back on The PULSE Community Podcast at: https://bit.ly/S2EP41PulsePodcast.
The PULSE Community website: ThePulseCommunity.ca.
Peter McCully is a multimedia creator and podcast host based in Parksville, BC. https://mccullymedia.ca/category/blog/