Such an amazing organization! Operation Come Home helps to "prevent homeless teens from becoming…read morehomeless adults". How does this work? There are all sorts of services avaliable such as education opportunities, skills partnerships, resume and interview prep, and even a closet full of clothes to help look the part and nail that job. There is food available and all sorts of other resources to help keep teens of the streets. The staff are fantastic and really give their all for the cause. There are all sorts of volunteer opportunities, and Operation Come Home is always looking for donations, not just monetary. I highly suggest to stop in and see how you can make a difference in our community. Everything helps!

This is a thrift store in a beautiful church on a small dead end street in a tiny town in Ontario…read more The people who volunteer here are joyful and delightful and kind, and they are proud that their work goes to support so many great charities. The store is beautifully organized and all the items on display are clean and quality. Like any thrift store you need to dig and try your luck on different occasions to find treasures, but some places are more fun to try your luck in than others and this is one of my favourites.

Good little thrift store with low prices for everything and occasional rare finds with designer…read morelabels, usually too small for me, alas! I would give it five stars except that today, when I wanted to donate two small boxes of clothes, I was told that they couldn't take them as the side door, where you leave donations, was locked! It was a little annoying as I had driven quite a distance, and gas is not cheap these days...

FoodWorks is a social enterprise that helps at-risk youth. It is a catering business that teaches…read moreyouth cooking skills to help them find employment in the culinary field. It is a part of Operation Come Home, whose mission is "preventing homeless youth from becoming homeless adults." I attended a work function where the lunch was catered by FoodWorks. It was a very solid brown bagged lunch, which literally came in a brown paper bag, lol. We got to select our sandwich, salad and a cookie, ahead of the event, from a set menu. On the day of the event, it was packed in a brown paper bag with our name on it. I got the roast beef sandwich, the North African chickpea salad, and the chocolate chip zucchini cookie. The roast beef sandwich came on a pretzel bun. It came with cheese, lettuce and tomatoes. The bun was a bit dry and dense, but otherwise the sandwich was good. I was surprised by the spiciness of the salad. I enjoyed it, but wasn't expecting the fiery kick. It had chickpeas, carrots, red peppers and dried barberries. The cookie was tasty and looked like my own misshapen homemade cookies ;) There was a lot of leftover food at the end of the event, so we were encouraged to take some home. I grabbed a Greek quinoa salad to go. It was delicious and had quinoa, onions, bell peppers, grape tomatoes, sliced green olives and feta cheese. Not sure what the pricing is, but I love that proceeds go back into Operation Come Home to help the youth. They also have a storefront on Gladstone Ave that sells frozen meals and items like jams and spices from local businesses, including other social enterprises, and also a cafe in the Bayview Yards. (33)

Amazing food and a great cause! I especially love their…read morechocolate cookies with cherry!! Nothings beats ordering great food and supporting a great cause.

I let my First Aid and CPR expire, but needed it for a job, so I had to take the whole course over…read moreagain. I chose a weekend-long course at the Red Cross on Catherine Street. It was really easy and fast to sign up for the course. There ended up being just six people in the class, so it was a nice size for the instructor to work with. She was super-nice and explained things in a way that made us understand. The classroom was great for acting out scenarios etc. It turned out that a couple of people in the class were in the same situation as me (repeating the course) and others had had some training in high school, so our instructor let us go early on a couple of days, since six hours of First Aid can be quite long! The test did not feel intimidating and our instructor was so helpful and approachable. I will definitely go back here to renew.

I was so pleased to discover this community service and thrift store and donation hub up near…read moreMont-Tremblant in St-Jovite. What began in a church basement over 25 years ago has become an essential hub running a food bank and emergency food support, Christmas baskets, funds for school supplies, and a thrift store with clothes, furniture, books and more at super affordable prices. We just wanted to grab some basic house stuff, and wanted to see if we could find it at thrift store before heading to a big box shop. We found everything we needed plus we were rewarded with some houseware finds we were pretty excited about. We had that classic thirft store conversation: "ok, if it's over 5$ for this spinning Danish teak salt dispenser we'll take it as a sign and leave it behind" cut to the sweetest old lady at the cash register announcing a grand total of $6.50 for all our finds combined. Cue delight. We'll be back next week with a ton of donations. So happy to be getting to know places like this that are the heart of our neighbourhoods.