Orillia Home Hardware Building Centre presented a $20,000 cheque to The Sharing Place Food Centre's critical School Fuel program on Thursday morning.
Between March 1 and April 6, Orillia Home Hardware hosted a campaign in which they promised to match customer donations for the program up to $20,000. The customers came through and the local hardware store did, as well as, combined, $40,000 was raised for the food bank.
Kirk McLean, a co-owner of Orillia Home Hardware, says it’s important to support local at-risk youth because they are not in control of their situation.
“They are just a product of their situation,” he said. “If we can try and make their school environment a little bit nicer and give them a full tummy, maybe they will have more success with their education.”
McLean says The Sharing Place is a "great and, unfortunately, very important service" to the community.
“As a parent myself, I can’t imagine what it would be like to not have food on the table,” he said. “That would be a horrible situation to be in.”
Chris Peacock, executive director of the Sharing Place Food Centre, hopes Home Hardware’s ongoing support of the food centre will inspire other organizations.
“From growing food for us, to financial contributions, to spreading awareness, they have become a core part of our organization,” he said.
When customers shop at Home Hardware, Peacock says they are investing in their community.
“They have been involved with The Lighthouse, The Sharing Place, and other community centres,” he said. “They really do invest in making Orillia a better place and without them, we would struggle to survive as an organization.”
Peacock says inflation has made things tight for even dual-income families that used to be considered in the middle class.
“Our food bank and school fuel program has never seen more demand,” he said. “Our community has never seen this kind of demand for emergency food access, and it strictly comes down to the cost of food, fuel, and housing.”
