(The Mustard Seed Red Deer)

By Alessia Proietti

August 22

The Mustard Seed hosting inaugural golf tournament for school lunches

Aug 18, 2022 | 4:30 PM

The Mustard Seed in Red Deer will be hosting its inaugural golf classic on Monday in support of their School Lunch Program.

On August 22, 100 participants are expected to gather at the Red Deer Golf & Country Club (4500 Fountain Drive) for The Seed’s first fundraising golf tournament.

During the 2021/22 school year, the charity states they delivered 85,000 lunches to 45 schools in Red Deer and surrounding areas, including rural locations.

“We found our numbers increasing at the end of the school year last year and we actually reached 500 lunches that we were making each and every school day. We anticipate that we will continue with that amount come September,” said Laura Giesbrecht, Director of Operations at The Seed in Red Deer.

At the organization’s first pancake breakfast in July, Giesbrecht explained how the lunches are made every morning throughout the 10-month school year by a consistently new group of volunteers around 7 a.m. Two delivery drivers then distribute the lunches to the north and south routes with a third paid driver for the farther surrounding areas.

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“We all know that when we’re hungry, we can’t learn and we can’t focus. For kids in schools, knowing that they have a lunch that they can count on enables them to be able to focus well, to have good relationships with classmates, with teachers. It’s something that helps to set kids up for success,” she said.

All proceeds raised form the golf tournament will go towards the program, with 50 per cent of monetary donations matched by Shaw Birdies for Kids, a non-profit program raising funds for local charities, until August 31.

The event will begin at 7:30 a.m. with a breakfast before the tournament at 9 a.m. Afterwards, lunch will be served at 2:30 p.m., followed by a live auction and announcement of winners.

“I hope that people can expect a really fun community experience. We got some great hole sponsors with some fun events happening and I hope that people can come and experience the hospitality of The Mustard Seed,” she said.

The program entirely run off of donations and volunteers, Giesbrecht hopes the tournament will raise enough funds to cover the costs of the program for three months. She says at $2.50 per lunch, and 10,000 lunches a month, that total leads to roughly $75,000.

Registration is still open for the tournament until August 19.

For those interested in donating, they can do so through The Mustard Seed’s website or directly to the Shaw Charity Classic to have their donation matched by 50 per cent.