Helping Hands gets funding lift

The head of Brandon’s Helping Hands said the soup kitchen is “grateful” after it was awarded extra funding from the City of Brandon late last month.

City council approved an additional $20,000 for the non-profit as part of its 2026 budget, on top of the $30,000 it provides in an annual grant.

The city’s contribution comes after the province allotted $200,000 from its sale of U.S. liquor over the holidays.

“This has us not as concerned about the future of Helping Hands,” Andrea Epp, chair of the Helping Hands Centre of Brandon Inc. board, said about the funding from both levels of government for the 111 Seventh St. location.

“Any amount that we receive helps. Our monthly expenses are somewhere between 25 and 30,000 (dollars), so anything that we receive from any source is a help,” Epp said.

The extra funding has will be used to recoup costs the organization spent on fixing a leaking roof.

“After the roof repair, after we paid for that, we were in a panic. It was very concerning,” Epp said.

The $225,000 cost of repairs depleted a lot of the organization’s reserves.

“That put us into a huge deficit,” she said.

Helping Hands often applies for grants to help cover the cost of projects, but it wasn’t able to secure funding before repairs started and couldn’t receive grant money for a project that had already been finished.

Epp said the soup kitchen has also seen a decrease in food and monetary donations during the last couple of years and is dealing with the costs of maintaining an aging building.

“With all of our costs and our need going up, we need to try to recoup that from every source that we can,” she said.

The soup kitchen had never needed to buy its own food before, Epp said, but with the drop in donations, it has started to make food purchases “the odd time.”

She said the non-profit will continue to fundraise and look for grants, as it always has.

Epp said Helping Hands is expecting to receive the province’s funding in late March, but that it is still looking for added funding from the provincial government.

“We’re always going to be looking for different funding sources. I don’t think that will ever stop. That’s what’s kept us alive up till now,” she said.

As funding is the province’s responsibility and not the city’s, Epp said she wants to see an annual allocation from provincial coffers. The contribution from U.S. liquor was the first time the province had ever given the organization money, she said.

“We are going to keep on them to make sure that they don’t forget that we exist, and that they keep us going.”

Epp said she would be “happy with anything that they would give us,” but is hoping “for something fairly significant.”

“Anything that they would give would be helpful, because it is important. People need to eat, and it helps everybody.”

Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett said the city will continue to advocate to the province with Helping Hands for regular funding.

“We want to make sure that they stay engaged,” Fawcett said.

“The work that they do is just so essential for our community.”

He said the city’s additional funding was because of “extreme circumstances” like the cost of the roof.

“So that was a bit of a one-off on our end,” he said.

In December, Helping Hands had also requested an additional $15,000 from the city in order to create a strategic plan. The request was lowered during budget deliberations to $2,500, but was ultimately voted down by council.

Epp said donors had stepped in before the request was denied, and that helped them secure the funding necessary.

She added that Helping Hands is setting up a fundraising committee, though it is still in the early stages and more information would likely come out in the fall.

» alambert@brandonsun.com