What’s behind the scenes at the Food Cupboard?

A bit of history.

The Food Cupboard began in 2008 when Pastor David Stead found himself

overwhelmed with requests for food, and none to give out. He asked Jennifer

Habermehl to look into setting up a food distribution day each month, and so it

began. The third week of the month was chosen as it was 1 week before

government cheques arrived. Wednesday morning was chosen as generally no

other activity was taking place at the church.

A request for donations of food was put out to the congregation, and many bags of

food were dropped off in the bins in the back of the church. Volunteers were

requested, and many came out to help. Some just wanted to sit and chat with the

clients, so we would make tea and coffee, and have some sort of snack available

to facilitate this. Clayton and Joyce Titus volunteered to make a cabinet to store

the boxed and canned goods, and their contribution was joyously accepted.

(Once that cabinet was in place, he was asked to make one for the sewing

groups, and both are used to their full extent, with great thanks.)

The Food Cupboard ran on the donations made to the church, along with food drives a couple of times a year. Do you remember “Fill a Mini or Two” or “Boys

versus Girls”? Other times shopping bags were put out with a list of goods

required, and they were returned full to overflowing.

Clients came in, registered how many in their family groups, and were able to

select the items they wanted and needed. As we began to have more newcomers

to Canada coming to us for help, we began to ask for more Halal items (Halal

follows Islamic food rules as Kosher follows Jewish rules) and often times had to

purchase them specifically.

Some months we offered clothing and household goods, thanks to the Ladies’

Coffee Hour who sorted and placed items on tables. Over time this became too

much to handle, and had to be dropped.

When the pandemic hit, we had to pivot. No longer could clients come into the

church to choose what they wanted. Also no longer were we receiving donations

of food; however, many of you donated financially. A shopping team was set up,

where we went to No Frills once a month, took 4 or more grocery carts, loaded

them up with what we needed, handed over about $1,200.00 and filled a truck and

often a couple of cars. Those were the days!

We loaded up the tables in rooms 3 & 4, and Charles and Cindy packed bags,

creating balanced meals with protein, vegetables and starch – each with enough

food for 2 people for a week. The bags were marked as Halal or not, making it

easy to hand them out correctly. Clients would walk or drive up to the front door,

tell us how many in the family, whether they wanted Halal, and we would put the

equivalent number of bags into their car trunks, wagons or trollies, along with a

bag with extras such as cereal, toilet paper, tea, coffee, soap, etc.

Once we could welcome people back into the

church, things changed again. Jennifer felt it was

time to step back and hand over the reins. People

were no longer shopping and bringing in groceries –

they preferred to donate money toward the Food

Cupboard through the Benevolent Fund. As well, we

began to receive Gift Cards from Village Green

Church and other sources to support this program.

Sometimes when we shopped people would stop us,

ask what all this was for, and give us a cash

donation right there in support of this ministry.

Charles and Cindy took over the administration, and

with their contacts in the community, were able to

provide a different point of view. Once a month

three of us continue to go out to a local store and

purchase canned and boxed goods based on what is

needed to replenish the shelves. As well, Charles and Cindy discovered Harvest Hands in St Thomas, a non-profit food distribution centre dedicated to rescuing food from bakers, growers and retailers for re-distribution to organizations such as ours. They provide us with produce, breads, canned and boxed goods, and even frozen goods. They go there twice a week topick up supplies.

Thanks to a donor, we now have a fridge dedicated to the food cupboard to store

these items. We received a grant from CBOQ and have on order a freezer for

when we receive frozen goods.

Thanks to the London Food Bank, we

received a $5,000 grant this year to help

us purchase food each month for our

clients. And thanks to the Middlesex-

London Health Unit, we also received

$5,000 in “Harvest Bucks” that allow

clients to purchase fresh, frozen, meat

and dairy from participating stores.

Sharing these resources fairly is challenging

but, so far, so good.

The need is great and continues to grow and

so this Fall we have had to restrict our

clientele to households within 2 postal code

areas – N6J and N6K and hope other Food

Banks can help people who live outside these

areas.

We have a great many volunteers who help

with the Food Cupboard, some even coming

in a couple of times in the month to stock

shelves, and make sure that soon-to-expire

items are ready to use first.

If you are interested in volunteering on Food

Cupboard day, please speak to Charles who

can tell you what assistance is needed. If you

can help financially, mark your offering

envelope or e-transfer with "Food Cupboard",

and it will get to the right fund.

Your Roving Reporter,

Margaret Habermehl