Offering hot meals to those in need

Written By Joshua Drakes

LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER

Times have not been easy on Canadians, as evidenced by the sharp increase in food bank use across the country, but some community members are doing their part to help.

Enter Food For You, a weekly hot meal initiative operating right in the heart of Shelburne. Staffed entirely by volunteers, they are doing their part to combat food insecurity in the area.

Sandra Gallaugher, one of the founders of the group, said it all started because of the need they saw in the community. Originally getting together in January of 2025, Food For You held its first dinner for residents in need on March 5 and has run every week since then.

“We're just a group of ladies that got together to fill a need in Shelburne,” Gallaugher said. “We wanted to bring people together and help them with food scarcity. We deal mostly in soups right now.”

Every Wednesday at 4:30 p.m., those in need of a hot meal can head over to the Trinity United Church. There are no reservations or sign-ups required; its doors are open to everyone. Guests are welcome to sit in or take the food to go, whichever is more comfortable.

Meals are also catered to specific needs, and include meat and vegetarian options.

“We don't always have all the options, but we try our best to have options available to everyone,” Gallaugher said. “So we do have some vegetarian options, like our soups. We keep them frozen so we can pull them out quickly if there's a need.”

Ann McAlpine, another member of the team, said they work with the Shelburne Food Bank, offering free meals more frequently than the food bank can, providing them with some reprieve throughout the month.

“We do kind of work with the food bank, we do try to give them a little relief when we can,” Ann said. “We make sure people have access to a free meal when they can't go to the food bank because of the monthly allotment, which is totally understandable. We wanted to give people another option.”

Gallaugher said they've been seeing a steady increase in weekly users of Food For You, both sit-ins and take-outs. On average, they see 16 to 25 people every Wednesday, and that number continues to rise consistently.

Gallaugher said, thankfully, they are able to meet this growing need thanks to generous donations and community support.

“We have a lot of donors that give to us,” she said. “We have hot dogs tonight that came from the Rotary Club. We had [the] Shelburne Golf and Country Club provide us with soups, and our bread through the food bank. It's a big community effort to come together.”

Currently, Food For You is looking to partner with local businesses to host food nights.

“We are starting to encourage people to maybe do a night, as a sponsorship,” Gallaugher said. “Something along the lines of them coming in and serving food, or making it with us, they'll be taking the lead for the night. Trillium Ford will actually be doing that in December.”

In the meantime, McAlpine said that Food for You is continuing to request food, financial donations, and volunteers – anything helps. She also reiterated that everyone is welcome on Wednesdays.

“We are currently accepting dry and packaged goods, and if you'd like to volunteer, please contact us,” McAlpine said. “It's a really enjoyable evening, the volunteers love doing it, the guests are appreciative. Our door is always open.”

For more information about Food for You, including contact information, head to https://shelburnerotaryclub.com/blog/soup-for-you/