Kincardine Good Food Box program donates 50 tokens to Kincardine Community Living

The Kincardine Good Food Box Neighbour-to-Neighbour initiative has donated 50 tokens to Community Living of Kincardine and District to provide supported individuals and families with access to fresh produce.

Wendy Cox, one of the program co-ordinators, made the presentation, Thursday, at the Community Living office.

She pointed out that the Coldest Night of the Year fund-raiser in 2024 netted $8,700 for the Good Food Box’s Neighbour-to-Neighbour initiative, offering free food support, where needed. That equates to 395 boxes of produce; thanks to all who walked and/or donated.

Cox said grants and donations were also received from the following:
 

• Community Foundation Grey Bruce
• United Way of Bruce Grey via Kincardine Community Services Association
• McKay Trust
• Municipality of Huron-Kinloss
• Municipality of Kincardine
• Order of the Eastern Star
• Kincardine Lions Club
• Tiverton Lions Club
• Ripley Legion
• Ripley Lions Club
• Knox, Kincardine WMS
• Kincardine United Church
• Epsilon Alpha
• Purple Grove Women’s Institute
• Various individual donors
• Loose donations on Good Food Box days

Because of the generosity of the community, the Neighbour-to-Neighbour initiative provided food support to the following:
                                                                                     Number of boxes                         Value
Food Bank clients                                                                   353                                   $7,766
Sponsored clients                                                                   344                                   $7,590
Six local schools                                                                      58                                    $1,276
Keystone Brighter Futures                                                      36                                      $792
Women's House Serving Grey Bruce                                     26                                      $572
Food Bank direct                                                                     24                                     $528
CMHA                                                                                        10                                      $220

Total:                                                                                       851                                  $18,744

“Given the way food costs are increasing, I can’t imagine that the demand for food support is going to diminish in the near future,” said Cox. “That means more fund-raising, so we are promoting this year’s Coldest Night of the Year Walk, scheduled for Feb. 22 at the Kincardine Legion, beginning at 4:30 p.m.. You can sign up here to volunteer: cnoy.org/volunteer.

“It means more grant-seeking, more speaking at any organization that will invite us, and more stories in the local media to remind people that we can’t do this without help from our generous community!”

Cox noted that across the year, 1,453 Good Food Boxes were purchased by paying customers. “These sensible and practical people know that without them, the charitable part of the program couldn’t happen. Thank you!”



Wendy Cox (left) of the Kincardine Good Food Box program presents 50 tokens to Catherine Evans, assistant director of Community Living of Kincardine and District, to provide supported individuals and families with access to fresh produce; Cox is also wearing a toque promoting the Coldest Night of the Year, set for Feb. 22; photo by David Dadson

While the program has a great bunch of volunteers who know exactly what needs to be done on Good Food Box distribution day, none of them has shown any inclination to take on a leadership role, said Cox.

“To go forward successfully, our program could really use a tech-savvy grant-writer,” she said. “Shirley Steele and I are the co-ordinators as well as publicists, speaking about the program and the Neighbour-to-Neighbour initiative.

“It would be wonderful to have a committee of three to five people who have talents in the various areas to spread the workload.”

Cox said the work includes a lot of administration, such as preparing client sheets, contacting volunteers, ordering flyers and produce, providing refreshments, preparing reports and bank deposits, reconciling the following month’s pre-orders with money and tokens received, counting the money in the cash box and replenishing the float.

On distribution day, which is the fourth Thursday of each month, from 9:30 a.m. to Noon, at Knox Kincardine, as well as Ripley and Tiverton, the work includes counting empty bins and then full bins, designating volunteers to various jobs, calling clients to remind them to pick up their boxes, deciding what to do with unclaimed boxes.

Prior to the next distribution day, the work includes picking up flyers, retrieving lists of pre-orders, money and tokens. Pre-orders are taken at the United Brotherhood of Carpenters Local 222 building at 385 Queen St., Kincardine; as well as at Patz Pizza, 56 Main St., Tiverton; and in Ripley.

You must pre-order and pay $22 for the Good Food Box, by the third Thursday of the month. Pick-up is at Knox Kincardine, as well as 50 Park St., Ripley; and Knox Tiverton.

For more information, contact Cox at 519-396-7307 or Steele at 519-396-3736.

Also at the Good Food Box distribution day, Bruce County Outreach runs from 10 a.m. to Noon. Attendees usually include: Bruce County Housing, YMCA Housing Services, Bruce County Paramedic Services, Grey Bruce Public Health, Canadian Mental Health Association Grey Bruce, VPI Employment Solutions, Bruce County Ontario Works, and United Way of Grey Bruce.