What’s behind the scenes at the Food Cupboard?
- Margaret Habermehl
- Jul 31
- 4 min read
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
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