Our relationship with the Jewish humanitarian organization Ve’ahavta began in 2015 when we supported their Street Outreach Van. When they killed it on that front, we happily became initial supporters of their Street Academy, where they rock starred it again. In the fall of 2020, when they pitched us on reconfiguring their office, expanding their kitchen, and developing a kitchen skills training program to help their clients earn food handling certifications enabling them to provide nutritional meals to their outreach vans and find employment in the food industry, we were all in and provided seed capital funding to help them bring other funders on board.

When Covid hit in March 2020, and it became clear the virus would spread rampantly throughout the city’s homeless shelters, we began working our connections to get everyone masked, hand-sanitized, and safe. Within two weeks we’d partnered with intimate apparel brand Knix to provide PPE weekly to 85 homeless shelters in the Greater Toronto Area. Initially, we were their only supply source. Eventually, we provided 40 per cent. Did we save lives? We’ll let you be the judge of that.

In spring 2015 when our late director, Jeff Lyons, visited Evangel Hall Mission, which houses one of the city’s only dental clinics for the homeless, he was horrified to learn of the indignities homeless people suffer because they can’t access affordable dental care. He returned from that visit determined to shine a light on the issue. After his death, to honour him and the charity’s work, we donated $130,000 to create a modern, state-of-the-art facility. We also provided design expertise to help staff outfit it. (Due to perpetual underfunding, they’d been struggling to attract volunteer professionals willing to work with its outdated equipment.) Since re-opening in January 2020, they’ve been able to build valuable partnerships and provide quality, dignified dental care to their clients.