Ethan, who lives in the Upper Beaches, recently completed the Daily Bread’s Take Action Project (TAP). TAP allows grade 9 to 12 students to earn volunteer hours while helping people experiencing food insecurity. For every 25 non-perishable food donations collected, TAP participants earn one volunteer hour. 

Volunteering is nothing new to Ethan; he had been involved with different charities through Scouts, but after hearing about how COVID-19 had put an extra demand on the food bank, he decided to sign up with TAP.  

In addition to supporting Daily Bread’s mission, Ethan also appreciated the flexibility of the TAP program, saying, “You just need to have a plan of what you want to do. It can be done just in your neighbourhood, or you can make it bigger. Then, once you decide where you want to collect food, you just need to figure out how to spread the word.” 

Once he had committed to TAP, Ethan created a pamphlet explaining the purpose of his food drive and which food bank he was collecting for. Of all the tasks he had to do to organize the food drive, designing the pamphlet took the longest. However, once it was completed, he printed a few hundred copies and walked around his neighbourhood, delivering the pamphlet to over three hundred homes.   

When he went to collect the donations, he was overwhelmed by how much people donated, saying, “One house gave donated 18 cans of non-perishable food,” adding, “it was nice to see that some people really cared.” 

According to Ethan, there are multiple benefits of getting involved in TAP, from fighting hunger to a sense of achievement saying, “this was the first time I organized something myself and did this all myself. You don’t have to be very charismatic or have special skills. Try to do something that you know you can do, and accomplish it.” 

Visit TAP to learn more about the program.