Local food bank receives a donation of nearly $8,000

January 14, 2021 · 0 Comments

Written By Sam Odrowski

The season of giving may be behind us, but local businesses are still going out of their way to support community organizations in need.

Home Hardware raised $2,700 from the community over the holidays and owner, Bill Gillam is matching that donation dollar for dollar to give to the local food bank.

In addition to Gillam’s $5,400, McCarthy Real Estate pitched in $500 and the Dufferin Drift Busters Snowmobile Club has contributed $2,000, bringing the total donation up to $7,900.

While it may not seem like a crazy amount of money, Ardith Dunlop of the Shepherds Cupboard Food Bank in Shelburne told the Citizen it will make a huge difference in getting quality food to a growing number of local individuals in need.

“This donation means that we’ll be in good operation for the next month or so. There’s lots of stuff – despite wonderful donations from the community – that we have to buy in order to make our order,” she explained. “We purchased the chicken locally, we purchase the hamburger locally… as well as produce, milk and bread, so there’s a constant need for donations and the numbers are up.”

The nearly $8,000 will help the food bank continue its service through January and February.

However, if the numbers of individuals accessing Shepherds Cupboard continues to rise as they have through the pandemic, Dunlop says the food bank could be in trouble when looking ahead to spring.

“I think people tend to forget, as the weather gets nicer, you know, April, May, June, July, August, those are lower times for people to give. So it’s important just to remember until this [pandemic] is over, a lot of families are battling a lot of insecurities in their lives right now, so we’re just happy that the community has supported us to be able to support them,” she remarked.

Dunlop told the Citizen while food is a concern, many residents are struggling to pay for rent, hydro, or clothes.

“We don’t want food [to be a concern] for anybody. If we can take food off the plate, then hopefully they can address other things,” said Dunlop, when speaking of the various financial challenges Shelburne residents are facing.

Meanwhile, President of the Dufferin Drift Busters Snowmobile Club, Kevin Newcombe said his organization really wanted to give back to the community with a donation to show their thanks.

The club is extremely appreciative of the community for allowing them to run their snowmobile club in Shelburne.

“The local community volunteers and landowners have been very generous to support their time and property to allow us to be able to snowmobile here,” he explained.

The Drift Busters donation came from money leftover from fundraising efforts held before the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the trails are currently closed to snowmobilers, Newcombe says they did get a good week of snowmobiling in prior to the shutdown.

He told the Citizen he looks forward to when the trails become operational again for local residents to enjoy.