Year in Review - 2022-2023

Highlights of 2022-23

  • Welcoming Angela on as the new Brantford Programming Coordinator!

  • Significantly grew the Distro Staff Team by securing funds for Martin Luther University College to hire Carol (Distro Coordinator) and Tavia (Distro Program Development and Partnerships)

  • We have moved into a brand new Brantford office

  • Being able to fund so many amazing campus and community initiatives (see below!)

  • A successful growing season

  • Building relationships with existing and new members of our community

Programming

  • Substantially improved our Free Weekly Distro program in partnership with Martin Luther University College

    • Up to 235 people attended our program each week for their supplies

    • Distributed hot meals cooked by Mount Zion Lutheran Church

    • Significantly increased our donors, grants, partnerships, staff and volunteers

    • Had over 100 volunteers engage with Distro over the last year

    • Increased our collaborations with the GSA Mini Market and the SU Foodbank to maximize our collective effort fighting food insecurity on campus

  • Ran the Hot Meal Campaign in partnership with Golden Helping Hands and Lonnies to provide meals to community members weekly in downtown Brantford

  • Expanded the Food Justice Garden (in partnership with Luther with support from the Sustainable Hawk Fund and the Centre for Earth Consciousness and Gender Justice) and had a successful growing season 

  • Ran in-person and virtual workshops on wide array of social and environmental justice issues, including learning to sew, menstrual equity, sex work, resisting colonialism, beekeeping, growing food, consent, celebrating Indigenous History Month and the intersections of the labour movement

  • Collaborated on large community events such as Take Back the Night and the Belonging Brant ABCD Symposium

Our Research and Action Groups

  • Brantford Food Forest Naturally Connected

  • Revitalizing Our Sustenance Project

  • Climate Justice Laurier

  • Shamrose for Syrian Culture

  • Food Not Bombs

  • KW Urban Harvester

Research

  • Conducted focus groups with the Students’ Union on how to improve 2SLGBTQ students’ experience

  • Collaborating on second survey asking for students’ feedback on accessing menstrual products on campus

  • The creation of Distro’s first-ever formal program evaluation survey

  • Participating in the "Gathering our Gifts" research project (by Elisabeth Miltenburg in partnership with Wisahkotewinowak Collective) which aims to strengthen community food sovereignty in Waterloo Region by identifying collaborative opportunities and shared priorities among community food initiatives

  • Funded Freedom of Information Requests into recorded Hate Incidents on campus to inform future projects

Alt Text FINANCES

May 2022 - April 2023 Budget Actuals

Income

  • WLU Funding (from Undergrad and Grad students on the Waterloo and Brantford campuses and Kitchener Location): $260,738.21

  • Community Memberships: $161.70

  • Miscellaneous Funds (interest revenue, donations, expense refunds): $ 1,039.66

Total Income $261,939.57

Administrative expenses

  1. General Administrative Total: $24,888.78

  • Liability insurance and contents coverage for the Board of Directors - ($5,715.65)

  • Bookkeeping and accounting. Part-time bookkeeper and fees for necessary year-end financials ($10,022.80)

  • Ontario PIRG and provincial network fees ($7,960.44)

  • Other expenses including website fees, computer software (Zoom, GSuite and Adobe Creative Cloud), office supplies, printing, bank charges, staff/Board travel, and postage. ($1,189.89)

    2. Advertising and Promotion: $769.92

    3. Payroll Expenses Total: $129,938.35: Staff health and LTD plans ($7,884.02), Taxes, ($7,803.95), Wages - One full-time and two part-time staff ($113,500.14), WSIB ($555.18)

Programming + Co-Sponsorship Expenses

3. Programming

  • Semesterly funding requests for campus and community initiatives ($3,014.03)

    1. Research and Action Groups semesterly funding - 8 groups ($6,048.33)

    2. Distro ($4,626.10)

    3. Rad Week ($850)

    4. Irregular Programming Brantford/Waterloo ($3,150)

    5. Other Events and Programming Brantford/Waterloo ($2,268.79)

    6. Total Spent On Programming ($19,957.40)

4. Donations and External Funding

  • Distro estimated value of food collected ($98,180.00)

    1. Distro program Expenses (paid through grants and donations via Luther) ($50,380.67)

5. Events and Programming Total: $168,518.07

Increase in programming expenditures since last AGM: $4,066.41 increase in core programming

Funding we provided to campus and community initiatives

We provide one-time funding requests for up to $750. The following projects are the ones we supported over the course of the last year.

Goals for the coming year

  • Transform our new Brantford Office into a cozy, rad space and welcome many

  • Prioritize mutual aid and strengthening relationships with our networks of support on and off campus

  • Expand Menstrual Equity program

  • Expand Free Weekly Distro programs

  • Implement our Organizational Health and Safety Plan