As we have discovered from our #RANoHungryChild initiative, there are many ways to feed hungry children. We have supported organizations that cook and serve full meals to kids and families. And we have helped replenish a variety of food banks with shelf-stable packaged foods that are always on hand as needed. But we were pretty excited when Class Act Coordinator Ruby Curtis-Cowen recently connected us with “Canada’s greenest food bank”.
About Gleaners Food Bank
Gleaners Food Bank offers an impressive variety of services to families in need in the Quinte Region in Ontario, Canada. They grow their own produce in an organic garden so that they can offer fresh food to people in their food hampers. They also have a neighborhood garden that is open to the road so that hungry people can just come and harvest their own fresh foods whenever they want. Families can come in from harsh weather to meet others and relax in Gleaners’ free cafe which is open every morning. A community nurse offers a variety of basic medical services a couple of times a month. These services include needle exchange, free condoms, flu shots, and drug overdose training.
In keeping with the environmentally-friendly theme, Gleaners offers small thank-you gifts to food bank clients who bring reusable bags. They also use solar electricity to keep energy costs down, as well as water collection tanks to enable sustainability. If that were not enough, Gleaners also undertakes biannual food drives in which members of the community are encouraged to go door-to-door to collect goods for the food bank. (Area schools get in on the action, too!) Gleaners even organizes yard sales to offset the cost of gasoline used to deliver food to people who cannot physically go to the food bank.
Green Is As Green Does
With all of the wonderful work Gleaners Food Bank is doing for their community, we were very happy to lend a hand. Because of your generous support during the 2018 Endure4Kindness event, we were able to provide a substantial monetary donation to the food bank. The funds we supplied will be used to provide food for families who have specific dietary needs or medical conditions such as diabetes and gluten intolerance. It is worth noting that cases of childhood diabetes in particular are rising at an increase of almost 2% per year. We are very thankful that we could provide some assistance in meeting this particular need. And we would like to express our thanks to Gleaners for taking the time to show Ruby around their facility! We hope the photos in this article will help you appreciate the scope of the work they are doing for their community.
Thank You For Your Generosity
As you may know, we have spent the past year focusing our efforts on alleviating childhood hunger in as many communities across the globe as we can reach. You can read more about what we have been able to accomplish together on our Childhood Hunger Campaign page. As always, we are so grateful for your help in making a real difference for children and families all over the world.
