Admittedly, I never anticipated Fresh Food Weekly to be growing as quickly as it is. We just finished our eighth week of doing free food deliveries and we’re continuing to receive more than 1,000 pounds of produce and bread items each and every week. So yes, I am on the prowl for a larger operating facility. This week we had another big week of food donations and we’ve picked up another new donor as well. The variety of fruits, vegetables, breads and baked goods is wonderful - I am so happy to be able to give the recipients of our program so much variety each week. New Food Donor
Jay’s Sticky Buns is a new sticky bun bakery in the south end of Barrie and they just opened up in June 2021. Take a look at these awesome sticky buns they donated this week!
Wednesday, July 21:
Dominion Farms donated 100lbs of carrots and Fresh Veggies at 60 Aileen donated 85lbs of celery (which I helped harvest!) and 60lbs of broccoli!
Thursday, July 22:
Each Thursday, Simcoe Harvest donates tons of their fruits, vegetables and breads to the Fresh Food Weekly program and this week was one of their biggest donations yet!
We are currently doing our deliveries on Thursday and Saturday evenings beginning at 5pm and our Thursday orders were packed to the max this week!
Friday, July 23:
Cookstown Greens gave us tons of asian lettuce and arugula!
Saturday, July 24:
On Saturday morning, I went to Caldense Bakery’s head office in North York again and picked up tons of frozen European pastries. Each week, they bring their unsold pastries from seven other Caldense Bakery franchises to their head office and freeze them die Fresh Food Weekly. What a blessing they have been to our delivery program.
We’re continuing to setup at the Barrie and Orillia Fairgrounds Farmers’ Market each Saturday and we’re continuing to receive lots of fresh produce donations!
Our Saturday evening deliveries had lots of different food items in them as well.
Future Plans for Fresh Food Weekly
Although this free food delivery program is still super new and still relatively small in scale, I have big plans and a big vision to grow it into a major food security program that can be replicated in cities around the world. To start, I’m envisioning a sustainable Community Farm that facilitates the production of produce and supplies food to not only the first Fresh Food Weekly program here in Barrie, Ontario, but also to Community Fridges in the Barrie and surrounding areas.
I am excited to watch this program grow and improve the massive food insecurity issues that thousands of families in Barrie are experiencing every day. I am also eager to tell you about some exciting news over the coming weeks, and I’m thrilled to be the one who shows you that business is not just about making profits - although profiting is obviously very important. It’s about helping others and making the world a better place to live in. It’s about coming up with solutions and bringing people and organizations together to make life easier for us all.
