It’s not every day a cheque this size comes across Jim Dores’s desk.
“I haven’t been with Thrifty Foods long but I sense that they are very reactive to situations like that, and when this came across my desk, I thought, ‘Holy mackerel, this is tremendous’,” said Dores, Thrifty president.
Since a massive earthquake and tsunami ravaged parts of Japan in March, Thrifty shoppers have donated more than $54,000 at grocery tills in support of relief efforts.
Dores presented the funds to Paul Jenkins, regional council president of the B.C. chapter of the Canadian Red Cross in May.
“I’ve never met an organization or a culture like this,” said Dores. “It doesn’t matter if it’s local or it’s international, it just seems that the culture of Thrifty Foods is to jump in and be there.”
Funds donated by customers on Vancouver Island will be distributed by the Canadian Red Cross to the Japanese Red Cross, to provide people with the basic necessities of life, from money to pay the bills and meals to blankets and clothing.