Mr. Speaker, when the pandemic first reached our shores, the West Vancouver Seniors' Activity Centre, with the help of dedicated volunteers, made over 6,600 calls to check in on the most vulnerable in the community. This COVID-prompted outreach revealed that in this community, like many other affluent communities, poverty and food insecurity is lying just below the surface.
With generous support from our government's emergency community support fund and the West Vancouver Foundation, the West Vancouver Seniors' Activity Centre has responded by creating a program to deliver 850 meals each week to vulnerable seniors since April 2. Local youth have also gotten involved by creating colourful compassion cards to include with these meals, allowing this program to nourish both the body and spirit. This program has been a life-changing moment for many seniors, bringing some to tears with how the community cares for them, and this is just one example of the many important initiatives that our community foundations and charities are supporting and that non-profits are undertaking when it is needed more than ever.
I thank them for the work they do to build our community.