Foodland fundraising BBQ for local food bank

July 16, 2014 · 0 Comments

Shelburne Foodland held a fundraising BBQ with one intention – to raise money for the Shepherd’s Cupboard, Shelburne’s local food bank.

The event raised $519.25, which is no small feat and greatly appreciated by Foodland staff.

The reason for the BBQ, as Meat Manager, Carl Smith, puts it, was to “Support the local community.”

Foodland also donates weekly to the Shepherd’s Cupboard providing much needed and greatly appreciated essential perishables that are so important to any Canadian diet. Chair of the Shepherd’s Cupboard, Reverend David Howe is extremely grateful for all the community support.

“We rely completely on donations and couldn’t manage without the generosity of the volunteers, the donations, and the support from the local community,” he said. “(I’d also like to acknowledge) the kind and generous support from local woman Alice Porter.”

Porter won a sweepstakes and shared her winnings, deciding it would do the food bank a lot of good, and it’s that kind of selfless, heartfelt disposition that reminds our community to be generous not only during the holidays.

In today’s troubled economy, Howe reminds that poverty as a global issue in today’s society is growing and unfortunately is likely to continue to grow. A complicated issue according to Howe where answers to resolve the issue of poverty are not easily found, making the donations the Shepherd’s Cupboard rely on so very precious. Howe, very deeply concerned on a compassionate level, is a world traveller, and has been and felt poverty on a personal level.

Howe is examining is Freedom 90, The Union of Food Bank and Emergency Meal Program Volunteers, and a quick visit to the sight at www.freedom90.ca

Case file: In 1991, 76 year old Jean Stinson cooked at the same church she had handed out sandwiches as a teenager in the Depression. She was quoted in an information pamphlet stating, “But I’ve never seen people sitting out on the street before.” Stinson says, “I’m fed up with levels of government and power structure that allows this to happen. The provincial government seems to be saying ‘We’ll let the charities worry about (feeding the poor)’, and that’s insulting.”

According to the Freedom 90 pamphlet, this quote had appeared in the Toronto Star in 1999. Astonishingly, over 15 years later, Stinson is still volunteering for the emergency meal program at Toronto’s Metropolitan United Church. She is now 91 years old. Howe and many others have to wonder what will happen when all the volunteers will reach the age of 90? Many of the volunteers wish food banks were obsolete and the government would pick up the responsible course of action of providing food to the citizens of its country and stop passing the buck onto charities.

If you would like to become a member of the Freedom 90 group, hoping to end the need for food banks by having the government take matters into their own hands, you can join online at www.freedom90.ca, but until that time, food banks like the Shepherd’s Cupboard continue to be so appreciative of the generous community support from organizations like Shelburne Foodland and its many kind citizen contributors, like Alice Porter.

By Alex Sher