{"id":60550,"date":"2025-11-29T15:32:51","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T19:32:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=60550"},"modified":"2025-11-29T15:32:51","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T19:32:51","slug":"iwk-foundation-500000-community-investment-scotiabank-financial-and-food-insecurity-initiatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=60550","title":{"rendered":"IWK Foundation announces $500,000 community investment from Scotiabank to fund financial and food insecurity initiatives"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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HALIFAX:<\/strong> The IWK Foundation celebrates a $500,000 gift through Scotiabank\u2019s ScotiaRISE community investment initiative to provide financial and wrap-around programming for IWK patients and families in need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This generous donation to the IWK\u2019s social work department will fund support that helps remove financial and social barriers for families including accommodation and transportation resources, assistance with medication and equipment costs, health and wellness education and food security initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Through ScotiaRISE, we are proud to support programs that help meet basic needs and remove barriers for parents who are caring for a sick child,\u201d says Nicola Ray Smith, Senior Vice President, Atlantic Region, Scotiabank. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur partnership with the IWK Foundation helps ensure that families can access the healthcare resources they need to support the well-being of their children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In addition to food insecurity affecting one in five Nova Scotians, transient food insecurity can be caused by caregivers being unable to work while caring for their child in the IWK. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This investment will help the IWK provide accessible, nutritious meal options to families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs the IWK often says, food is medicine and supporting caregivers as they care for their children is a vital part of their care journey,\u201d says Nancy Cashen, Director, Interprofessional Practice and Learning, IWK Health. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis gift is helping to foster a thoughtful inclusive process to ensure inpatient families have access to nutritious meals, so they can focus on what truly matters \u2013 their child.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IWK Social Work Team is integral to delivering compassionate, holistic care that addresses not only physical health needs, but also the emotional, social, and psychological needs of our patients and families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe challenges faced by families navigating a child\u2019s serious illness, hospitalization, or mental health challenge is often invisible yet deeply felt,\u201d says Michael Earle, Professional Practice Leader, Social Work, IWK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBehind each request for support is a story of resilience in the face of adversity \u2013 of parents skipping meals to afford medication to families making impossible choices between rent, food, and their child\u2019s care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Since receiving this generous donation from Scotiabank, the IWK has been able to support an incredible 462 requests for support, for a total of 296 families as of September 30, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scotiabank has been supporting the IWK since 1987 and, since that time, has donated over $2 million to help improve patient care for Maritime women,\u00a0children and youth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are extremely grateful for our long-term partnership with Scotiabank as they are truly part of the fabric of the IWK,\u201d says Jennifer Gillivan, President & CEO, IWK Foundation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know that families are struggling, and this collective support shows them that they are not alone \u2013 that there is a community behind them, ensuring they have access to the best possible care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through the generous support of Scotiabank, the IWK has been able to meet families with compassion and concrete assistance when they need it most. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This funding has not only filled immediate gaps in food, transportation, and medication, but has helped restore dignity, reduce stress, and create space for families to focus on what matters most: health and healing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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HALIFAX: The IWK Foundation celebrates a $500,000 gift through Scotiabank\u2019s ScotiaRISE community investment initiative to provide financial and wrap-around programming for IWK patients and families in need. This generous donation to the IWK\u2019s social work department will fund support that helps remove financial and social barriers for families including accommodation and transportation resources, assistance with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[957],"tags":[459,50,30,31,48,1631,9809],"class_list":["post-60550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-food-insecurity","tag-halifax","tag-iwk","tag-iwk-foundation","tag-n-s","tag-scotiabank","tag-scotiarise"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/60668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}