It’s now been seven weeks of doing deliveries and I’m proud to announce that Fresh Food Weekly has received more than 8,100 pounds of donated produce, breads and non-perishable items. The amount of food that is being donated by individual members and businesses in our community is abs incredible and witnessing this amount of giving is a joy to watch.
Fresh Veggies at 60 Aileen in the Holland Marsh donated twice this week and after several requests to post a video of myself harvesting their lettuce, I’m happy to comply!
This week we also had several new donors including Mapleview Community Church in Barrie’s south end. Did you know that Mapleview church has a food bank right inside their church? It’s really quite impressive. I was able to check it out this week and their congregation has a lot of very generous members! Their donation this week filled an entire shelf at the Barrie Community Fridge, as well as another shelf back at Fresh Food Weekly!
Caldense Bakery in Bradford, Ontario is another new donor and they gave an incredible donation on Wednesday night. They have so many European breads and pastries, it all overflowed out of two big bins!
On Thursday, Simcoe Harvest, Dominion Farms, and 60 Aileen all donated again and we were able to create food orders that were literally packed to the max.
On Friday morning, Cookstown Greens donated tons of root vegetables and leafy greens once again - they have so much that I was even able to take the leftover colourful carrots to the Barrie Community Fridge.
We also got another new bakery donor on Friday: Don’s Bakery in Barrie’s south end. Their donation of bread loaves, butter tarts, and gingerbread men were raves about by the families who received them. They gave Fresh Food Weekly two boxes of gingerbread men, which they supply to Santa’s Village in Bracebridge.
On Saturday morning, I drove to Caldense Bakery’s head office in North York and they donated tons of amazing pastries, which were included in our Saturday evening deliveries. Caldense Bakery is a franchise and the owner at their head office also owns seven other franchises in the GTA. Going forward, they’ve offered to curate breads and pastries from these seven locations each day, and will freeze them at their head office until Saturday each week, when I come to pick them up for our Saturday deliveries. What a blessing it is to have their support!
Fresh Food Weekly also setup at the Barrie and Orillia Fairgrounds Farmer’ Market, as usual and as you can see, these Farmer’ markets have been also been huge supports of our free food program. I want to give a big thank you to Harris Family Farm, Behr Farm, Terry’s Unique Hot Sauce, Feast from the East, East End Kitchen, JBR Farms, Two Crazy Acres, Jillian Jiggs Baking and Hewitt’s Maple Ridge Tree Farm for all their incredible donations this week. They are having such a positive impact on the vulnerable in our community and we are so grateful for everything they do and con to do each week.
The Truth is: Change is Happening
Together, all these donations are feeding families in need and these food businesses and community organizations are showing our community what true leadership really looks like. Their kindness and support is a demonstration of what helping others at the grassroots level is and by posting their acts of serving all over social media, Fresh Food Weekly is displaying the truth: we are a community and OUR community genuinely cares about the well-bring of others. The members of Barrie and the surrounding areas have created change and this change continues to impact entire families each and every week.
