Helping Hand Food Bank surpasses its winter target
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Thanks to the generosity of the community, Helping Hand Food Bank coordinator Joan Clarkson is smiling big as the year winds down.
"We're doing pretty good - my goal was 50,000 pounds of food by the end of the year," said Clarkson, recalling a target she set at the Oct. 1st Food Blitz, which kicked off the fall food drive with a collection of 12,000 pounds.
Generous donations from service clubs, churches, businesses, schools, teams, and individuals helped them reach 50,637 pounds of food on Dec. 7.
"Right now we're over 54,000," said Clarkson, "and I think another 4,000 to 5,000 coming in, so I think we'll be closer to 60,000 than 50,000. And that is amazing. I don't think I've ever been as pleased as I am this year with what we received - and the wonderful volunteers that we have.
"At the beginning I was nervous," she admitted. "Someone, somewhere, is performing little miracles for this food bank.
"Today (Dec. 14), I didn't even have to buy anything. The milk came from the Dairy Board, and I didn't have to buy eggs because they went to Waterloo and got the 45 dozen eggs that we get quarterly from the Egg Board. And when they were at the (food bank) hub, they brought back vegetables."
The Helping Hand Food Bank in Tillsonburg also received monetary donations, said Clarkson, which helps supply fresh food - and pays the hydro bills.
"I think that we're going to do alright this winter. It's a good feeling."
OAFB Grant
Helping Hand Food Bank recently received a $2,500 capacity building grant from Ontario Association of Food Banks, which they used to purchase two freezers for meat.
"We got a good deal (from Hurley's) and we ended up paying $2,100, which left us $400 to buy the meat to put in the freezers."
One of the new units is an upright model.
"This one is really neat," said Clarkson. "And we really needed it."
Stand-up models are easier for volunteers to clean, said Clarkson, smiling as she remembered Marion Pratt doing a difficult job for so many years.
"These standard freezers are so deep - they are harder to clean."
The food bank has nine freezers in total, including three uprights, and two coolers.
"The one over there, we fill it with meat that we're going to put out during the day. And these are for storage."
The OAFB grant allowed the food bank to replace two units that were 15-plus years old. They still have three or four from that generation," said Clarkson.
"I'm not exactly sure how old they are... I've been here eight years and they were old when I got here."
Upgrading units is important for energy efficiency, said board member Val Foerster, who helped Clarkson apply for the OAFB grant.
"It's saves hydro," Foerster noted.
One of the freezers was loaded with ground pork and hamburger.
"This was a gift, a lady gave me most of two pigs for ground pork," said Clarkson. "And we purchase our hamburger - it's in boxes down there."