HEFC HEROES

APRIL 2024

By Lynn Sherwood

It seems that spring has arrived – and spring means tax time and thus is he season of the accountant as well as warmer weather. So, this April our Heroes are the three members of the Finance Committee of our board at HEFC: Corinne Semaan, Mike Quinn and Faaria Bhollah.

Corinne, Mike and Faaria are the latest volunteers from the accounting firm, Hendry Warren, whose employees manage the rather complex finances of HEFC.

There is a lot to keep track of. We have many donors, small and large, all of whom require tax receipts for their contributions. We also have monthly expenses which must be paid on time. As we are a charitable organization with an independent board of directors, we submit monthly reports to the board and must report annually to the City of Ottawa, the Ottawa Food Bank and the Canada Revenue Agency. Our finance team also ensures annual audited financial statements are completed, the preparation of which is referred to another accounting firm before presentation at our annual general meeting. In addition, we receive several notifications of grant opportunities from various organizations that must be reviewed and assessed for relevance to our program before we apply for the grants. Our finances are a lot of work!

Hendry Warren provides volunteer accounting to a variety of charitable organizations in Ottawa, and we are very fortunate to have the services of these three dedicated volunteers who are their employees. Over the years, a number of different accountants from this firm have participated on our board’s Finance Committee. These folks manage all of our bookkeeping, accounting, auditing and reporting obligations on a voluntary basis, meaning that all donations to HEFC can be spent on food. All three team members do this work in addition to their regular jobs during “the busy season” from February to June, although they may also use some work hours during the rest of the year. Corinne estimates that the team spends about 15 hours a month on this task, at no cost to our organization.