The Mustard Seed in Red Deer is gearing up to host an open house next week and officials are inviting the community to come and check out the facility and learn more about the operations.
Byron Bradley, director of Central Alberta for The Mustard Seed, said the open house will take place on Nov. 3rd from 2-4 p.m.
“It is open to anyone in the community,” he said. “It’s an opportunity for the community to come out and come into our building and it helps break down stereotypes and misconceptions. We just want to open our doors to people and let the community know they are welcome to come in and see what we are all about.”
Bradley added volunteers are still needed at The Mustard Seed.
“Our school lunch program requires volunteers in the morningtime Monday to Friday for various things like making sandwiches, packing lunches, delivering lunches and preparing food. There are various tasks there,” he said.
The organization has also added two more positions including a Wellness Advocate who meets one on one with guests to support them with whatever barriers they may be facing in terms of experiencing poverty and homelessness. “It could be helping them navigate the health system, helping them get their ID back, helping them get to a treatment centre or with mental health,” said Bradley.
Another position The Mustard Seed has added is a Spiritual Care Chaplin as well.
Looking ahead to the holiday season, Bradley said they are going to, “Do Christmas really big” this year.
“Typically we serve dinner three days a week, but at Christmas we are going to be serving dinner for eight days in a row including Boxing Day. Basically we will serve dinner from Dec. 19th to the 26th and we will be open every day,” he said. “We are going to have family fun events every day – things like decorating stockings to gingerbread house making, face painting, card making and we’ll have a movie night and a games day. It will be open to the whole family. We want to celebrate Christmas really well.”
In early November, Bradley said there will be volunteer opportunities posted for the holiday season on their web site.
“We will have a lot of unique volunteer opportunities come Christmastime.”
Meanwhile, Bradley said The Mustard Seed has had a warm and welcome response from the Red Deer community since opening their doors last summer.
“We feel very humbled by the generosity in the community,” said Bradley. “Overall from the community we have had a lot of great support, so we are very grateful for that.”
For more information, visit www.TheSeed.ca/RedDeer.
efawcett@reddeerexpress.com
