A Scholarship to Help An Underprivileged Student Pay for their First Year of University.
Education is the centrepiece of our approach to reducing poverty. We truly believe that creating, providing, and facilitating learning about the world around us is the key to uplifting the less fortunate.
As part of this goal, we’re starting an educational scholarship that will help an underprivileged student pay for their first year of university. Many aspiring students choose not to enrol because they can’t afford it (often due to personal situations like the ailing health of a family member, lack a stable household, etc.).
We want to help one of these underprivileged students get to school and kickstart their academic career. However, we can’t do this without your help—please donate if you can! All donations to the OP Scholarship Fund will go directly towards a scholarship to be presented in June 2021.
Our Fundraising Goal:
$2000
Donations
Ten Dollar Donation
CA$10.00
Fifty Dollar Donation
CA$50.00
One Hundred Dollar Donation
CA$100.00
Five Hundred Dollar Donation
CA$500.00
One Thousand Dollar Donation
CA$1,000.00
Our Previous Fundraising Initiatives
During the Summer of 2020, we raised money for small community food banks and centres in Ontario who desperately needed food supplies to feed people in need. 100% of funds donated were directed towards food bank organizations in the Hamilton and London areas. Due to your generous support, we were able to reach our respective fundraising goals for Rounds 1 & 2. Click the links below to learn more about our impact for each specific round!
Round 1: Hamilton
$1,524.85
March 27 – April 3
Round 2: London
$2,041.40
May 6 – May 13
The Story
Operation Poverty was founded on the idea that young people can make a difference towards poverty reduction and other global problems. We hope to empower young people through education, so that they themselves can create their own journeys of social impact. This initiative embodies that mandate and serves as a model for other young Canadians to follow, which is especially needed during times like these.
The Need
Food banks depend on community donations to provide food for those in need. Since the breakout of COVID-19, money and food donations have dropped substantially. Impoverished populations don’t have the same ability to stock food and supplies for weeks, and depend on food banks to survive.

2 Weeks
Time until the average food bank’s emergency food stocks run out

40+% DROP
Drop in donations for the average food bank since the start of the crisis

Demand Spike
More people are in need of a food bank, while volunteering declines
Our Impact

Round 1: Hamilton & Neighbour 2 Neighbour Centre
Thank you to our first round of donors! We raised $1,500 in one week from March 27 to April 3, providing 997 pounds food for over 3,500 individuals who use the Neighbour to Neighbour Centre in Hamilton each month. We worked with N2N to learn about their emergency services and identify the food items they needed the most, after which we purchased food at discounted prices and personally delivered it to the food bank.

Round 2: London & Life Spin
Thank you to all those who donated for Round 2: London! We were thrilled to have surpassed the funds raised from Round 1, raising a total of $2,041.40 in one week. Your donations will be used to purchase food boxes containing fresh, locally-sourced produce for at-risk populations in London. We want to especially thank the HBA Association at Western University for this round of fundraising, who agreed to match every dollar donated up to $1,000. Thanks to you, we were able to fully maximize this opportunity.
Thank You.
We would like to sincerely thank our donors, who have made the impact of our fundraising initiatives possible.
Our COVID-19 Response Fundraiser Donors:
CBITI
Sarah Litterick
Tiffany Liu
Ashmeet Siali
Phil Buckley
Kelsea Swackhammer
Zarin Hossain
Hailey Reynolds
Saadiya Pathan
Scotty Andrade
Judith Smeltzer
Tasfiah Tasnim
Munam Majeed
Hughson Ong
Alex Starkman
Rishika Sekhar
The Ivey HBA Association at Western University
Shari Fremeth-Tepper
Si Ran Wang
Josie Schwartz
Lisa Pei
Noah Solomon
Naira Shahanyants
Cory Nagler
Nusaibah Tahsin
Stacy Swartz
Martha Maznevski
Leonides Son
Juliana Schiavone
Donn Bernal
Marwan Yousif
Sandra Bojic
Colin McDougall
Miguel Betancourt
Rosemary Fremeth
Steve Harris
Nabila Kiyani
Alexander Conde
Carolyn Shi
Pat Benn
Josefina Masaki
Paul Seale
Jo-Anne Vandierendonck
J. Cooper
Vivid Ma
Marisa Thorburn
Martha Elliott
Katherine Clee
Justin Kim
Jonah Opler
We would also like to thank the donors who we did not get a chance to learn the names of—those that donated spontaneously as our team transported food inventories from the grocery stores to the food bank, and to those that donated anonymously. We remember you in our gratitude!

We’d love to answer any questions you might have about our fundraiser. Please connect with us to learn more about our local food banks or any of our other projects!