The Rainbow Kitchen in Esquimalt serves 36,000 meals each year to Victorians who badly need help, but after four years in a makeshift space, the kitchen itself badly needed help.
The facilities were crumbling and in some cases even unsafe. As with many non-profit organizations, the money to fix the problems was out of reach.
Help arrived in the form of more than 400 volunteers brought together by the HeroWork organization. Led by founder and executive director Paul Latour, HeroWork recruited volunteers, including Canadian Forces members, companies and tradespeople to design and execute a $500,000 renovation of the kitchen.
Over three weekends that wrapped up on Oct. 2, the crews blitzed the job, which HeroWork said included: “kitchen upgrades, bathrooms, electrical, window replacement, flooring, roofing, changes to the loading dock, landscaping (including a food production garden) and painting.”
By midweek, the kitchen’s volunteers were moving back into their newly renovated facility, ready to start cooking again.
For HeroWork, the next project is coming soon. An announcement is expected in early November, when the non-profit will start looking for donations for another renovation.
