A local car dealership hopes to give a big donation to The Sharing Place this holiday season.
Jim Wilson Chevrolet Buick GMC is collecting food donations in a showroom truck and matching the public’s monetary donations — up to $10,000 — from Nov. 26 to Dec. 3.
For the past 15 years, the dealership has filled a vehicle with donations for The Sharing Place, and this holiday season marks the third year in a row that it will match the public’s monetary donations, as well.
“We always have felt the importance of supporting the community and giving back any way that we can,” said Cassandra Minter, the dealership’s marketing manager. “It’s been very … helpful towards everyone that uses the food centre, so we're happy to run it again this year.”
Once the campaign is over, food donations gathered in the truck will be delivered to the food bank, on top of monetary donations collected over the next week.
“We enjoy doing this because it gives us multiple options and ways to support The Sharing Place, and our staff, as well as our customers, enjoy getting involved,” said Minter.
This holiday season, some of the top needed items at the food bank are as follows:
- Cranberry sauce, poultry gravy, and stuffing
- Canned meat, fish, soup, and vegetables
- Peanut butter
- Rice
- Sugar and flour
- Tea bags and coffee (instant and ground)
- Low sugar cereal
Chris Peacock, executive director at The Sharing Place, called the dealership’s annual campaign an “incredible thing” that “encourages the spirit of giving around the community.”
“The team here has been able to step up to the plate every single year and have allowed us to continue to support our community, and that's a big deal,” he said. “Not only for Jim Wilson's, but other organizations around the community that year over year, (are) able to support our most vulnerable community members, and we're very thankful for that.”
With food insecurity rates climbing, Peacock encouraged those who can to give this holiday season.
“We're dealing with significant food insecurity rates right now. We've gone from 18 per cent to 30 per cent in Simcoe County, and so we know in Orillia we have a higher poverty rate than the rest of the municipalities across our region,” Peacock explained.
“If you're sitting there with the ability to be generous and give, we encourage you to give, because there's a lot of people in our community (where) it's really tough right now.”
Peacock said monetary donations are the best way to support The Sharing Place, as the food bank can purchase goods at wholesale prices, but encouraged those who wish to donate food to seek healthy options.
“Healthy food is the most expensive food, and we want to ensure that individuals living in poverty that are food insecure have the ability to access healthy food. It's really important,” he said.
Members of the public who wish to donate can bring food donations to the dealership, and can make monetary donations on The Sharing Place website.
