Over the years, we've raised thousands of dollars in "free" money for the church through our Grocery Receipt Program.
Here’s how the program works: We've made arrangements with two local grocery stores (West Vancouver IGA and City Market at Park Royal). For every $5,000 in grocery receipts from their stores, they give us a $25 (or $50) gift card -- which we sell at face value to someone in the church who shops there, and the money from the sale is donated to the church. In other words: for every $5,000 in receipts, the church gets $25 (or $50) of "free" money.
Marie Bensley was originally in charge of our Grocery Receipt program -- and then she handed it over to Nora Coates. Since 2024, the program is monitored by Linda Pratt. Linda sorts donated receipts for the two stores, add them up (so they are in bundles of roughly $5,000), send the packets to the store manager, and "sell" the donated gift cards.
If you shop at either of these two stores, please save your receipts! Bring them to the church and place them in the folder on the bulletin board in the stairwell. This is a great way to earn “free” money for the church!
Similarly, if you shop at either of these stores — please let Linda know if you’d occasionally be willing to purchase gift cards (at face value) for those stores, to help her convert the gift cards into cash for the church.
UPDATE:
As of January 2026, City Market at Park Royal is offering a drawing and will award a $25 Gift Card to one of our shoppers from each batch of $5,000 that Linda submits. See the sign in the stairwell for complete details, but basically, here’s how this NEW program works:
Buyers who shop at City Market at Park Royal are invited to go online to complete a brief “tell us how we did today” survey (linked at the bottom of your receipt). If you strongly agree to all the survey questions by giving them a 5 out of 5 rating, simply write your name and phone number on the back of the receipt. You will then be eligible to win a $25 City Market Park Royal Gift Card.
Each time Linda submits a batch of $5,000, one name will be drawn for the $25 gift card — so your chances are very high of winning!
(The store Owner/Manager, Doug Huntington, has assured us that your name and phone number will be kept confidential — and he will personally contact the winner using the phone number they provide).
