Giving Back – Foundry

Giving Back – Foundry

As you may know, Rancho Vignola has always incorporated giving back to and supporting the people within Canadian communities with quality and nutritious whole foods as part of the way we do things. As a seasonal business specializing in the freshest and highest grade products available, we never carryover inventory from one harvest season to the next. Since our products usually still have a year or more shelf life left when the seasons change, at the end of every summer just before the new harvest comes in, we pack up any remaining food and donate it to food banks and charities across Canada. These food banks and charities then in turn provide Canadians needing some extra support with a wide variety of nutritious, minimally processed natural foods.

This year we learned about Foundry, an organization based in Penticton B.C.. Foundry is a province wide program that provides youth ages 12-24 with support and easier access to mental health, substance support, primary care, peer support and social services. What makes them different is they provide all this support and care in one place, so the youth who come in are not having to get referrals for different services. Foundry currently has 13 locations open across B.C and are in the progress of opening 6 new locations! 

Foundry also runs many additional programs such as group day hikes, which they now have some extra tasty and nutritious nuts and dried fruit to bring with them. They’ve also run programs with local caterers and chefs who have offered classes teaching youth how to cook, use knives properly, and how to shop effectively to make what they buy go further. Unfortunately during covid they had to pause some of their kitchen programs, thankfully they’re now starting to re-open them and they will be able to further educate the youth about food, cooking, and will be able to supply some pre-made frozen meals in their hampers as well.

With inflation and the cost of everything including food on the rise, they’ve been struggling more to fill their hampers and provide the youth they’re supporting with healthy whole food options. When they reached out to us about their need we put together a selection of nutritious nuts and dried fruit to help provide their youth with additional health-wise, nutritious foods in their hampers and for various other programs they run. 

We are proud to be able to donate to causes such as Foundry and we’re grateful to be able to support our communities and the people within them with nutritious whole foods. Thank you to everyone at Foundry who’s working together to support youth in need across B.C.

If you would like to get involved or find more information about Foundry you can check out their website at https://foundrybc.ca/

Or learn how you can get involved here: https://foundrybc.ca/get-involved/