Welcome our new member: The Sharing Place Food Bank
Posted: August 23, 2017
Categories: GoodFoodBites
Sustain Ontario would like to welcome our newest member, The Sharing Place Food Bank based in Orillia. Below you will find information about them from their website!
The Sharing Place Food Bank is Orillia’s larges
t and busiest food bank and has been in operation since 1988. Every week they are visited by many families, but at least a third of their clientele are children. They provide their clients with healthy and nutritious food that will last three to five days. Their food bank hampers contain non- perishable basics, frozen ground beef, fresh eggs, bread, fresh fruit and vegetables under their Fresh Produce Program, as well as fresh milk under their Fresh Milk Program.
The Orillia area community is very supportive of The Sharing Place by providing continuous donations of food and funding that allow them to continue running. About 80% of the food that The Sharing Place distributes is food that they buy themselves (always at discounted prices). They also welcome gifts of non-perishable food and donations.
Of course, the Sharing Place would prefer if Food Banks everywhere, including their’s, was shut down forever, knowing and feeling secure that they are no longer needed. However, that is not the case at this time.
The Sharing Place also has a Kid’s Zone Brown Bag Lunch Snack Program that was launched in January 2013. They were awarded funding in 2012 through the Rural Grants Program to provide healthy food to school aged children. This initiative was made possible through the support of The Grocery Foundation, which gives food banks in rural Ontario opportunities to increase their fresh, healthy food for children within their communities. In Sept 2013, they were awarded another 3,300 through this annual grant opportunity which has been vital to this program.
This program offers families that visit the food bank a bag of snacks a month for each elementary and secondary school aged child that lives within the same residence. The following healthy options could include applesauce cup, fruit cup, 100% juice box, granola or cereal bar, raisin snack box, fresh cheese portion, crackers, 100% fruit bar, yogurt tube, fresh banana, fresh apple and fresh orange.
Thank you for joining Sustain!