Giving Tuesday | What Oasis Means to Chelsea
This post is a part of our 2023 Giving Tuesday Campaign. Our goal this year is to raise $5,000 to help fund our food security, women’s counselling, and seniors’ programming. If you would like to donate, please visit our Canada Helps page. All donations over $20 will receive a tax deductible receipt.
Oasis Dufferin Community Centre is vital in the city of Toronto as food scarcity is still an ongoing social issue. With its main focus being food security and running a successful food bank, you can see Oasis’s impact through the community members that come each week. Each staff and volunteer take the time to build relationships with the community members and understand and listen to their needs.
As I spend my time each week here, I see those values demonstrated day after day. Oasis strives for change in the community and food security as they firmly believe that access to food is a human right. Other programs provided by Oasis are designed for the people. Everything is planned carefully and efficiently, from seniors events to Spanish-speaking women needing counselling. Oasis values each community member as they take great lengths to provide services and resources needed for them.
As an Oasis intern and social service worker student at George Brown College, I have personally witnessed Oasis advocating for community members and the fight for food justice. The people here consistently demonstrate the importance of community and providing services needed for others. I have seen the passion and dedication of each staff and volunteer who enters through the doors.
Oasis has played a huge role in my life in providing a perspective on what it means to run a food bank and showing how food insecurity impacts the lives of others such as mental health, housing, crisis support, etc. Oasis understands and works to dismantle systemic forms of oppression that cause barriers to food access.
Agencies like Oasis Dufferin Community Centre are the reason why I am a student in social work. I value, appreciate, and commend Oasis for all their hard work they put in the community. I look forward to what Oasis brings in the future.
- Chelsea Edra
