New community food pantry opens at Stouffville Pentecostal Church
Pantry created with help from Good Food Impact and Canadian Courage Project
Written by: Simon Martin
There is a new community food pantry located at Stouffville Pentecostal Church in Stouffville. The Take Care of Your Neighbours campaign, the Good Food Impact and the Canadian Courage Project have teamed up with the Stouffville Pentecostal Church to bring the pantry to town.
A community pantry, also known as free pantries and community cupboards, are a 24-7 food access point, where anyone can get the food they need, when they need it.
An innovative approach to community resource development, the team modelled the pantry to ensure both food and essential hygiene items have space within it.
Similar to a lending book library, these pantries are stocked by the community. “It’s as simple as adding a few extra non-perishable food items to your next grocery shop, or asking your friends and family to bring non-perishable food items to your next event,” Emma Wood from the Good Food Impact said. “The goal of the pantry is to increase opportunity to (access) food and resources in the community.”
Located steps away from Oscar Peterson Public School and Stouffville District Secondary School, the hope is the pantry will be accessed by food insecure students. Food Secure Canada recently found that 1.4 million children have experienced some level of food insecurity in the past 12 months.
The group urges the community to donate what they can. Items such as easy-to-eat snacks, cans with pull tabs, pet food and hygiene products are great donations. Recognizing seasonal limitations, a list of what to donate in each season is found on the side of the pantry.
The Take Care of Your Neighbours campaign began this spring, when the two Stouffville-based non-profits launched their collaborative tote bag. For each tote sold, 100 per cent of the proceeds went to support the programs of both organizations.
“It is an honour to be collaborating alongside community organizations and innovators,” Shania Bhopa, from the Canadian Courage Project, said. “Finding a way to ensure every single person has an accessibility opportunity to receive the essentials items that they need is the best output that could resulted from the Take Care of Your Neighbours campaign.”
