Yousif Hamadi once pulled a marathon food bank run for 54 families in a single day because the food would have gone bad otherwise.
He’s the food bank manager for the Olive Branch Revival Foundation, an organization that delivers more than two tons of food every month without warehousing and refrigeration facilities.
“Yousif is on the road 24-7,” said foundation president Mustafa Abousaleh. “We estimate that we can actually increase our operation by seven times more if we have a permanent space.”
Hamadi said he sometimes has to give away an excess amount of food, beyond what a family can consume before it spoils.
“Sometimes it’s raining. Snow, heat. Bees around me, because I have a lot of sweet food,” he said, listing off the challenges of running a food delivery operation out of the back of a car.
The foundation’s white SUV has racked up more than 640,000 kilometres since it was donated a few years ago.
Hamadi’s organizational skills — gained from his life as an accountant in Egypt — help keep everything running smoothly.
Olive Branch Revival Foundation primarily serves capital region newcomers from Muslim-majority communities in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa.
It doesn’t just provide food.
Two weeks ago, Hamadi delivered a bed to a family whose 10-year-old son had been sleeping on the floor for more than a year.
The group also advocates for people facing language or cultural barriers.
But not every need is fulfilled, despite best efforts.
“When I receive a call and someone says I have a baby and I don’t have a crib [at that moment], that makes me sad,” Hamadi said.
Abousaleh said they collaborate with 43 other organizations to deliver services in order to increase resiliency.
“If we go through a bad year, not everyone gets harmed because there’s a system, there is a network of organizations working together.”
The organization received funding from the Government of B.C.’s Community Prosperity Fund, which was distributed through the Victoria Foundation’s Community Grants Program.
The foundation delivered services to more than 7,700 people last year, Abousaleh said.
“Our budget is very small. But we try to keep every dollar that comes [and] we make it go to specific programming.”
Last year, the charity reported expenses of just over $57,000.
The foundation also been offering cultural sensitivity training to local companies, churches as well as local police, Abousaleh said.
Because they don’t have an office, meetings are often held in parking lots. Volunteers sometimes offer up their homes to host.
“We have to be very creative,” Abousaleh said.
Abousaleh, a software engineer, said the 40-plus hours he spends each week on the volunteer work is worth it.
“When I immigrated, it was a very challenging period,” he said. “It took me over 10 or so years to feel fully established. Imagine you could save people that time.”
Combined, the foundation’s three directors — Abousaleh, Hamadi and Zoheir Tahar, the foundation’s secretary — have more than a century’s worth of charitable work experience under their belts.
The three are hoping to build something that will outlast their generation, Abousaleh said, adding it’s why the foundation is named after the olive tree. “They take a long time to grow, but once they’ve grown, they are very deeply rooted and they continue to give good for over 100 years.”
