BLT Reverse Advent Calendar

What started as a simple family conversation about giving and helping people in our community struggling with food insecurity grew beyond anything that Kelly Marshall and T Jay Mulyk ever expected.

Kelly and her family set a goal to pick one food item a day to donate to a local family. With this idea, the BLT Reverse Advent Calendar Food Drive was born. Not thinking much of it, she shared the idea with friends on Facebook, challenging them to do the same. Consolidating the donations on December 19, the Reverse Advent Calendar included holiday favourites like cranberry sauce, cookies and much more.

It was no surprise how the BLT residents responded to this charity. This simple community challenge resulted in not only residents making food donations, but local businesses also wanted to contribute. With so many people collecting food for the December 19 drop off date, Kelly realized they needed help as they had quickly outgrown their church hall location. In true BLT spirit, the community stepped up and the food drive was moved to a new location where volunteers helped sort through the hundreds of food donations to be packaged and delivered to families before the holiday.

“Thank you, BLT,” says Kelly. “Your heart is huge, your spirit is incredible and we couldn’t have done this without you. Bless each one of you for a job well done.”

A simple Facebook challenge, posted during a year most would like to forget, made sure that over 200 residents of BLT had full dinner plates during the holiday season.