Chilliwack – Ruth and Naomi’s mission in Chilliwack will be serving their traditional Christmas and Boxing Day dinners for those dealing with homeless and food security issues.
Cheryl Giesbrecht, the Executive Assistant for Ruth and Naomi’s Mission told FVN:
RAN will be having our annual Christmas dinner (turkey and ham and all the fixings!) on Dec 25th at 4:30pm. This will be a sit down meal in our dining hall.
We will also be providing a meal on boxing day (26th) at 4:30pm but this meal will be a take-out meal.
Merry Christmas!
RAN has gone through a few changes in 2021 including Neil Oslund , becoming Acting Executive Director, replacing Bill Raddatz, who resigned in October.
RAN employs almost 100 people.
The brief history:
The roots of Ruth & Naomi’s Mission dates back to 2000 when a couple began to distribute home-made sandwiches in-and-around the area of Five Corners in downtown Chilliwack.
The need soon outgrew the resources and over the years, various store-front locations were secured to offer drop-in connections with coffee, sandwiches and soup.
In 2005, a Board of Directors were formed and a registered not-for-profit society was created.
In 2010, a vacated dry-cleaning business was purchased on Margaret Avenue and used as a site for evening suppers and emergency shelter. Later, the building was replaced and by 2012, new and expanded services and residential addiction recovery programs were developed in partnership with the City of Chilliwack, BC Housing and the broader community while still maintaining the heart and values of the original founders.
