The Literacy Course students are pleased to present a series of interviews with SOLE students about their cool projects, experiences, and adventures outside of school.

Sugar Shelter Interview

Andrew                                                                                                                         Jun 7, 2022

After doing some research on Sugar Shelter, a non-profit organization that raises money for homeless shelters, I wanted to learn more. So I went straight to the source. Here’s my interview with SOLE student Georgia who runs Sugar Shelter.

Andrew Russell (AR): Who or what inspired your desire to help people?

Georgia (G): As a little kid, I always wanted to go into social work. I felt a really strong connection with homeless people especially. I just feel they deserve more and a lot of people overlook them, and so I’ve always wanted to help them because I think people need to realize it’s not always their fault or their doing for being homeless. So I wanted to spread awareness towards homeless people and that’s why I started Sugar Shelter. 

AR: Who came up with the name “Sugar Shelter” and who designed the logo? 

G: The idea behind Sugar Shelter is basically, like I said, I always wanted to be a social worker but I’ve also been baking since I was really young and so I put them together and I started to bake and sell those baked goods to raise money for homeless shelters and people in need. It kinda just came to mind one day, Sugar Shelter, and then my sister helped me design the logo. 

AR: Do you have a favourite thing that you bake?

G: I’ve always really liked baking pies but I like to try out new things. I really like making wedding cakes; you get to be super creative. 

AR: How often do you get outside help? And from who? 

G: So often I’m doing it all alone, it takes a few days to do the baking and planning, but if anyone it would be my parents. They help me plan or they give me space to bake, they share my (online) posts so their friends can see so yeah.

AR: You also work with Sandwich Sisters, what’s that like? 

G: Oh, Sandwich Sisters is the best. It’s this little organization run by some old ladies who are really cool. Basically they get students or volunteers to make sandwiches and then they have these pods around the city. You drop the sandwiches off and they all go to shelters. I started to make sandwiches with them last summer and it’s just a really good opportunity because you can do it on your own time, and you can be creative. In my experience I’ve never dropped them off at the pods. I’ve always gone to the shelter. Just meeting everyone at the shelter and getting to know people is really cool. 

AR: What are some of your long term goals you have for Sugar Shelter? 

G: I definitely want to grow Sugar Shelter. In the past I really wanted to be a social worker and still it’s in the back of my head but to be more realistic I think Sugar Shelter will be more of a side project and I’ll do something else in the future. 

AR: Is there anything else you’d like to say or add?

G: Yeah, just keep an open mind. I know people understand but there are people that come in contact with that just don’t understand how it is to be homeless. I’m not homeless but there’s just so much more to it then people see, and I guess just keep an open mind.