CALGARY — Shaw Communications said today it is donating $1 million to Community Food Centres Canada (CFCC) to support food banks and agencies across the country, while also providing two months’ service credit to Shaw Internet customers using the federal Connecting Families program for low-income families.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has affected all aspects of our lives and has significantly increased the demands placed on the organizations that are helping to provide food and resources to the most vulnerable Canadians,” said Brad Shaw, CEO of Shaw Communications, in a news release Tuesday. “As long-time partners of Community Food Centres Canada — and some of the community food centres and organizations they support — we are pleased to help them provide food security to low-income individuals, seniors, First Nation communities, and marginalized members of our communities during this time of crisis.”
Shaw’s donation will help CFCC provide additional and immediate support to the organizations and communities it serves across Canada.
“Vulnerable Canadians need our support now more than ever as our communities continue to cope with the impacts of the Covid-19 outbreak,” said Nick Saul, CEO of Community Food Centres Canada, in the release. “The demand at our Community Food Centres and Good Food Organizations has never been higher, and this extraordinary donation from Shaw, a long-time partner, will help ensure that more Canadians get the essentials they need to help get through this difficult time. We are immensely grateful to Shaw for their very generous gift.”
Shaw also announced it will automatically provide two months of credit to all Shaw customers who are currently signed up to the government of Canada’s Connecting Families initiative.
“In-home Internet connectivity has never been more important than it is today, and for our customers most in need, we want to make sure they don’t have to worry about their monthly Internet bill as they manage taking care of their family during the Covid-19 pandemic,” Shaw said in the news release.
Tuesday’s announcements are the latest of several Shaw initiatives designed to keep individuals, families and communities connected and supported while they observe physical distancing and self-isolation protocols during the Covid-19 crisis.
Other recent Shaw initiatives include:
- Providing free access to the Shaw Go Wi-Fi network across Western Canada.
- Giving Freedom Mobile customers with a rate plan of 3GB of Freedom LTE data or less — including those who have no data allotment — an extra 2GB of data for free.
- Giving all Shaw Cable and Shaw Direct customers free access to several TV channels at no additional cost, including CBC News Network, CTV News Channel, Treehouse and Disney Jr.
- Ensuring Shaw customers continue to have the data they need by not having hard data caps on Shaw Internet plans and not limiting customers’ Internet data use.
A full list of other #ShawHelps initiatives can be found at shaw.ca/shaw-helps.
