Competition - July 2024
Are you a competitive person?
Maybe that word conjures up an image of a hockey parent screaming in the stands at their kid’s game, or the last family board game night. But to be competitive ultimately means to strive for – whether you’re striving to best a rival or, in many cases, simply to best yourself, whether with a new fastest time, highest score, or the most accurate answers.
The truth is, we participate in a lot of competitions every day. We’re competing for each other’s attention against what’s on the screen, while the billboards we pass on the highway compete for our attention against what’s on the road. Maybe your work environment is highly competitive, with different coworkers vying for a promotion or raise. And, of course, there’s a competition for how we spend the resources we have – one car brand versus another, one grocery store chain against another.
While you might think of a large company like Microsoft as being highly competitive, its founder Bill Gates didn’t see it that way – at least not in his personal life. “I am not in competition with anyone but myself,” he said. “My goal is to improve myself continuously.”
We take that same philosophy at Lionhearts. Our ‘say yes’ attitude, which I talked about in our last newsletter, is about elevating the work of our teams of volunteers and staff to rescue more food and more goods to ultimately restore hope and dignity to more people and support more agencies.
When we talk about the amount we’re rescuing, it’s never a brag. Truly, it’s a bit mindblowing sometimes to think without us that there would be that much wasted. And it’s challenging to see how much we rescue and redistribute and to know there is still more need.
A recent report from Food Banks Canada suggests that one in four Canadians has a “poverty standard of living”, meaning they cannot afford more than two household essentials out of a list of 11 categories. That group of our friends and neighbours includes nearly half of all single-parent households and over 40 percent of renters.
And this is why we seek to outdo ourselves each day. We see the struggle, and we ask ourselves how we can rise to the occasion. We strive to turn these trends around for those we serve.
It’s a competition where we all win.
Travis Blackmore
CEO, Lionhearts Inc.
Best Summer Job Ever?
If you’ve visited a warehouse recently, you’ve seen some fresh, young faces around. Welcome to our new Canada Summer Jobs students joining us for the months of July and August! Thank you to this Government of Canada program for the additional support.
It Takes a Township
Our thanks to Loyalist Township and to the Community Foundation of Lennox & Addington - both organizations pledged to help our efforts in Amherstview and Napanee recently, including our student food boxes, community nutrition meals program, and food and household good recovery.