Giving back close to home

Husband and wife team up to assist RRCRC Community Food Bank

After a fall hike in Gatineau Park, my wife and I were reminded that Giving Season is upon us. Soon our inboxes will be filled with appeals from organizations doing important work. This year, we’d like to make the case for one especially close to home: helping our neighbours build better lives through the Rideau-Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre (RRCRC).

Last year, we retired and began thinking about how we wanted to spend this next chapter. We wanted to give back in ways both practical and local. We wanted to get to know our community better and help where we could.

We knew that Rideau-Rockcliffe includes some of Ottawa’s wealthiest neighbourhoods alongside some of its most financially vulnerable. Still, knowing that, and understanding what it means in people’s daily lives, are two very different things. It’s easy to live comfortably in one part of our ward without appreciating the pressures facing families just a few streets away.

RRCRC’s Community Food Bank became our entry point. We started volunteering one afternoon a week, working directly with community members and helping to distribute food. We also helped to develop an inventory management system.

There is something grounding about this work. Whatever your professional background, there are groceries to organize, shelves to stock and people to welcome. You have a useful job to do, alongside staff and volunteers who care deeply about the community they serve.

Sobering numbers

The scale of the need is sobering. Nearly 15 per cent of our ward’s residents accessed its food bank in 2025, including more than 2,000 children. Annual food bank visits were four times what they had been in 2020.

Those numbers describe people in our own community. Parents trying to keep their children fed. People trying to make limited incomes cover rent, utilities and groceries. Neighbours for whom an unexpected expense can upset an already precarious balance.

As we became more involved, we joined the centre’s Community Champions Circle to help raise awareness about RRCRC’s work and support fundraising efforts. That opened our eyes to how much more the centre does.

Food is an immediate need. But helping a family find stability often means working through several connected challenges; this could include housing, income, employment, health and/or isolation. RRCRC helps people navigate these challenges and connect with support offered by the centre or one of its partner organizations.

Other services

One example particularly struck me. In 2025, its free Community Tax Clinic helped more than 1,000 residents file their returns and access more than $5.2 million in tax credits, benefits and refunds. That is money they are eligible for, but people may need help completing the paperwork to receive it. A little practical assistance can make an enormous difference.

RRCRC also offers counselling, crisis intervention, and help navigating government services. Its community meals, gardens, and programs for children, youth, adults and seniors create opportunities for people to connect. Skills development and leadership opportunities help residents build confidence and take their own next steps.

Taken together, these services help people meet today’s needs while building greater independence and connection. They give families more room to breathe, more options and a better chance to thrive.

That matters to all of us. A community’s well-being depends partly on how willing we are to look beyond our own households and invest in one another.

Giving season

As you consider your giving this season, please consider the Rideau-Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre. A financial donation helps sustain this work as demand grows. If you can, a monthly contribution gives the centre dependable support throughout the year.

And consider volunteering. There are many ways to contribute your time, skills and experience. You don’t need to arrive with all the answers. We certainly didn’t. You can start by showing up and being willing to help.

To donate or learn more about volunteering, visit www.crcrr.org. This giving season let’s help more of our neighbours thrive.

Contributors Mike Wilson and Stephanie Meyer are RRCRC Community Food Bank volunteers and Community Champions.