Merry Christmas from the North Huron Community Food Share

   At this time, our Board of Directors would like to say “Thank You” for all the very generous donations to keep our Food Bank fully stocked over the Holiday Season. The ongoing generosity of you, our supporters, when asked time and again to donate more food, shows the compassion that local small towns and rural areas have for the less fortunate. A growing number of local groups, businesses and individuals continue to support our cause.

   We have seen a continuing rise in the use of the Food Bank, with 47 families accessing our services the first week in December this year. I think it’s important that people realize, we only “Supplement” the client’s existing food and they can only access our services, once a month. We still use the same criteria for allotting food to families based on the number of family members as was established in 1995, when the Food Bank opened. Unfortunately we have had to cut back on handing out vouchers for eggs and milk, so that we can use that money to buy more groceries to help the increasing number of clients. We are having new families come to the Food Share almost every week. These are not new families to our area, but rather families that now, due to health, lack of work or even marital situations, find themselves a little short of food each month. It takes a lot of soul searching to finally admit that you need to come to the Food Share for assistance.

   In a recent article in the Advance-Times, the Ontario Association of Food Banks released its 2014 Hunger Report this week, revealing that almost 375,000 individuals – more than one third children – are turning to Food Banks each month. “Unstable employment conditions, unsustainable wages and rising costs of food, transportation and shelter are forcing a growing number of Ontarians to have to choose between paying their bills and putting food on the table. The largest groups of food bank users are children, women over 18, single parent families, individuals who require social assistance and rental tenants.”

   The directors of the North Huron Community Food Share are continuing to come up with “Fund Raiser” ideas. We seem to be preaching the same message, every time I write an editorial, but the fact remains we are in need of food and monetary donations every month of the year, not just the Christmas Season. If you or your group have an idea to help us out, PLEASE contact our board listed on our website (www.nhfoodshare.ca) or “like us” on facebook. I’m proud to once again mention that all our directors and our many volunteers, are not paid for their valuable service to the Food Share. All monies and food that we receive, stay right here to serve Wingham and the surrounding area.

   As I’ve stated before, one of the best closing lines of any movie is from “Scrooge”. I leave you with the immortal last words spoken by Tiny Tim….”God Bless Us, Everyone”.

Gord Kaster – Media Relations

The students responsible for most of the work regarding food collection are from the FE Madill Club – Mustangs Making a Difference.  However, we were fortunate to have several other helpers from the student population to pitch in and help.  Last year we raised 700 items and this year our goal was to collect double that amount.  Overall, we raised over 1600 food items.  This was all due to the generous support of the students and teachers at FE Madill and the Community of Wingham.  

The Backpack Program in Huron supports families who cannot afford backpacks and school supplies for their children * the program is organized by the Food Banks of Huron County and donations are provided by many organizations in Huron County.

The North Huron Food Share is once again happy to support this initiative.  We will be handing out approximately 70 backpacks to local children this year.