Vernon’s Upper Room Mission ‘blessed’ by community support after flood

The manager at Vernon's Upper Room Mission says he feels deep gratitude to the community for rallying around after a refrigerator flood destroyed masses of food just one day before the charity's Christmas dinner was scheduled to feed 150 people.

Vernon's Upper Room Mission general manager Jacco de Vin told iNFOnews.ca today, Dec. 23, a sprinkler malfunction in the cooler caused a flood and left a huge amount of produce inedible.

Luckily, the majority of the food prepared for the Christmas dinner, which will likely feed 150 people when it's held on Christmas Eve, was spared.

However, the Mission still lost boxes and boxes of fresh produce.

But de Vin says once word got out of the flood the community's response was incredible.

"It's been amazing how the community has come together in just finding out through the grapevine," he said. "We had a number of restaurants help us by ordering fresh produce for us."

de Vin said the Mission had received multiple donations from people and organizations straight away.

"The one word that comes to mind is gratitude," de Vin said. "The blessings we're receiving from the community, just the support right away is amazing, we're super thankful for people who are stepping up."

The general manager says he's still returning calls from all the voicemails he received yesterday with people calling to offer to help out.

"The community should be praised," he said.

de Vin said it was a huge relief to hear the majority of the Christmas dinner food was saved, but the Mission operates seven days a week so the loss of fresh produce still takes its toll.

The fact that roughly 24 hours after the flood it's almost been replaced speaks to the kindness of people in the community, he said.

"It's a good news story about how the community came together and sees the value in what we do in the day to day and wants to help," de Vin said.

de Vin said as fresh produce has a short shelf life if people want to give the best thing is to donate cash for its ongoing work.

For more information on the Upper Room Mission and to donate go here.

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