Our Programs
BRIDGING THE GAP
*Please Note - Bridging the Gap will be closed over the holidays from December 23 and will reopen on Tuesday, January 7, 2025.
Bridging the Gap is a place of friendship, hope, a caring listening ear, where all are treated with dignity. This program is geared to support our visitors’ needs through connections to other community agencies and resources (ie medical, dental, housing, etc.) as well as providing them with toiletries, household supplies and food vouchers. We provide Clothes Closet vouchers to our visitors that allows them to access cost-free, gently used clothing.
This program is on a drop in basis on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 9:30-11am. Appointments are not required. Within a safe and informal setting, we offer our visitors opportunities to share their successes and challenges on a one-on-one basis with a volunteer on the front porch of our offices.
In 2023 we had 1205 visits from Aurora families. We are currently (March 2024) serving 115 families (170 adults and 70 children) per month.
Eligibility requirements to participate in this program include being an Aurora resident and completion of a yearly application. For more information, please call the Welcoming Arms office at 905-726-1483.
MARTHA’S TABLE
Martha’s Table is a community luncheon that operates every Thursday out of St Andrew’s Presbyterian (32 Mosley St, Aurora) from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm from September to June. Martha’s Table offers an average of 50 weekly guests a safe, welcoming place to meet, eat homemade soup and sandwiches and experience friendly conversations!
If you walk in to St Andrews kitchen at 9:30 am on a Thursday, you will be in good company with our volunteers working together, getting everything ready for the luncheon. The kitchen is always full of a positive attitude as volunteers work as a true team, always ready to do anything that needs to be done.
From slicing the freshly donated COBS bread, prepping the weekly egg salad, tuna, salmon and cucumber sandwiches, cutting the fresh fruit and cakes for dessert, making coffee and tea, the Martha’s Table kitchen is a joyful place to start off a day! By 10:30 am, everything is ready and the volunteers sit and enjoy a cup of coffee/tea and some dessert before our guests start coming in around 11am.
“I absolutely absolutely love working for Martha’s Table and hope to continue to work with a great fantastic staff and crew for long time” - Jeffery Kozak, dishwasher (and an excellent DJ!)
If you’re interested in knowing more or getting involved, contact keri@welcomingarms.ca !
WELCOME TABLE
*Please Note - Welcome Table will be offering a Christmas Day meal on December 25. Pre-registration for the meal will start on December 4.
Welcome Table is a drop-in community dinner that operates every Wednesday out of Trinity Anglican Church (79 Victoria St, Aurora) at 5:00pm, providing a hot meal 52 weeks of the year. Please note that takeout has been discontinued as of September 13, 2023.
For more than 15 years, Welcome Table has been providing a safe space, food and friendship to more than 80 guests each week. This currently includes about 15 children and 20 seniors.
More than 100 dedicated volunteers serve in a variety of roles: Servers, Security, Friends, Chefs, Sous-Chefs, and Dishwashers
Join our team in caring for our community! Email: keri@welcomingarms.ca to get involved.
GIVING GARDEN
The Giving Garden is a success each year thanks to the ABLE Network, who plants, waters, weeds and harvests fresh vegetables throughout the season. Through their hard work, we can provide fresh vegetables to visitors at our Bridging the Gap program throughout the summer and fall.
We are so grateful to Snowball Garden Center for generously donating the soil each year, making this garden possible!
