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Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Annual drive fills local food banks BY WAYNE CAMPBELL
for the VOICE The 22nd Pelham Community Food Drive was a moving experience for everything and everyone Saturday. Starting at 9:30 a.m. crews fanned out from the Fonthill and Fenwick Lions Club halls in trucks, vans and cars to cover more than 40 routes in the built up areas of Fonthill, Fenwick, Ridgeville and North Pelham. They picked up bags, boxes and sacks of food placed in front of homes. “I was amazed by the generosity,” said first-time volunteer Gary Nicholls. Volunteers stuffed pickups into the trucks and checked back at the Lions halls to ensure all routes were covered. “We have plenty of volunteers and drivers,” said coordinator Sylvia Berkhout at the Fonthill Lions Club Saturday. “It’s all moving quickly.” The crews then carried the donations to the Old Pelham Town Hall in Ridgeville. At the back of the hall,
Volunteer crews sort donations at Old Pelham Town Hall for distribution to local food banks. Wayne Campbell/Voice Photo they unloaded the bags, boxes and sacks. Soon, the donations extended along the outside of the hall, into its back corridor and filled the stage. From there, dozens of volunteer sorters along a series of tables arranged the food items, checked expiry dates, placed them in boxes by category --peas with peas, rice with rice, soup with soup --and called for carriers to take them out the front door to waiting trucks.
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“It went incredibly well,” said Pelham Cares president Jane Gilmour about the in-the-back-door and out-the-front system. “We cleared the hall by 4 p.m.” In the past, the food drive used the old Fenwick fire hall for sorting and storing. Problems at the firehall including mice led to a change. To use the Old Town Hall, Pelham Cares had to create a one-day sort so as not to interfere with rentals.
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“Doug Burr up on the stage kept everyone moving and laughing,” said Gilmour. Burr was from Tim Hortons the official sponsor of the drive. In addition to Pelham’s two Lions Clubs, the food drive was helped by the Fonthill and District Kinsmen, the town’s volunteer firefighters, Sobeys, The Blue Star, Country Corner Market, army cadet corps, students from area schools and new and returning volunteers. From the Old Town
Hall, food was shipped by trucks to Pelham Cares office and food bank on Regional Road 20 in Fonthill. Some of the donations also went to food banks at the Hope Centre, Open Arms Mission and Salvation Army in Welland. “It’s hard to judge how much we collected,” said Gilmour, “but the drivers tell me there was more than ever before.” She said the community food drive has become a great success and fills great need. Gerry Berkhout founded the drive 22 years ago. He continues to guide it to serve the local food bank and those in neighbouring communities. “I think it gets better every year, he said. “Many people realize it’s a great way to start the Christmas season by doing something for those less fortunate.” Each year, he said, he worries about whether there would be enough volunteers and enough donations. “But the community always comes through and you have to be pretty proud of that.”
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