203 Turkey Meal Boxes Delivered for Christmas
For Christmas this year, we're happy to announce that we delivered 203 Christmas dinner meal boxes to 203 low-income families living in Barrie, on Monday, Dec. 19th.
Throughout the months of November and December, we raised enough money to spend $12,000 on the various food items that would be included in each meal box.
On delivery day, we had 79 volunteers come and help us either by picking up food, packing meal boxes, loading volunteer drivers when they arrived or delivering these meal boxes to low-income families living all over the City of Barrie.
Among those who volunteered their time to deliver these meal boxes, was Alex Nuttall, the new mayor of Barrie, as well as Brian Shelley, the CEO of the United Way of Simcoe Muskoka, Rob Cikojia, the CEO of Habitat for Humanity Huronia, and Len Giglio, the CEO of Tempo Flexible Packaging, a food packaging manufacturing plant based in Innisfil. To us, this really shows just how committed our community is to providing help to the vulnerable during a time when inflation is causing thousands to go hungry, right here in our own backyards.
(325 pounds of Brussels sprouts from
Goldsmith's Farm Market & Bakery in Thornbury)
On top of raising +$12K, we also had many lovely food donations. Our first food donation was from Continental Specialties & Imports (the Dutch store in downtown Barrie) and they donated eight cheese wheels of Mild Gouda cheese!
We also received a donation of 100 1L egg nog cartons from Kawartha Dairy, 200 pounds of beautiful rainbow carrots from Cookstown Greens, and then Fox's Bakery & Deli donated all of the dinner rolls we ordered!
Although not everyone wanted a turkey, we purchased 197 turkeys from Zehrs on Bryne Drive and had these turkeys delivered by volunteers on the morning of the delivery day. We also picked up a ton of toilet paper from Costco the week prior.
Christmas Beauty Product Drive
Each year, Fresh Food Weekly also does a beauty product gift drive for women who've been in the Women & Children's Shelter of Barrie at some point in time. Throughout November and December, we collect unopened beauty products from individuals in the community. We also receive donations from local beauty salons and then do up gift baskets and deliver them to women.
When money is tight, women will often spend whatever they do have on their children and quite often, there isn't anything left over for them. So this beauty product drive helps to ensure that these women will be getting at least one present for Christmas. This year, we were able to put together 22 Christmas beauty product gift baskets and received donations from seven local beauty salons, including Connect Hair Salon, Slickers Hair Salon, Rinaldi Salon & Spa, Mon Cheri Hair Salon, Tinted Love Hair Studio, Vixen's Beauty Den and Black Rose Beauty Lounge.
Wendel Clark Prize Pack Draw
We also did a Wendel Clark Signed Alumni Whisky prize pack draw to help encourage people to donate to Fresh Food Weekly. To enter the draw, participants could purchase a ticket for $45, which was the cost of one regular meal box. We ended up raising $540 through this fundraiser!
Now that we are coming to the end of 2022, we are starting to plan for the new year with some really cool changes. Please stay tuned to see what they are!