Driven to give

Volunteers Lisa Marquardt and Toni Murphy at the Storehouse Foodbank.

The Storehouse Foodbank gets ready for the holidays

Christmas is coming, and people are opening their hearts and their pantries for the Storehouse food bank. The food bank has identified 129 children in Wellington, Hillier or Ameliasburgh whose parents need a little help bringing Santa to their homes. Each child is represented by paper angel bearing their age and gender. These paper angels adorn Christmas trees at the Wellington Legion and the Cascades Pub in Consecon. Almost every business in Wellington has sponsored an angel.

On Saturday December 13, the paper angels will be replaced with donated gifts, placed under the tree at the Legion. Meanwhile Peter Rea and other local artists will perform. While it’s being pitched as a benefit event for the food bank, Storehouse manager Linda Downey says the concert is free; intended as a way to give back to donors.

At home base in Wellington, volunteers are working hard to ensure gifts and Christmas hampers are ready. There is still work to be done. For all the food bank clients, the Christmas hampers need to be packed. There needs to be enough to go around—a tall order with 28 items, including a turkey on the list for each hamper.

There are socks and coats, books and baby blankets. This year, there are also grooming gift baskets for seniors and teens, with donations of lotions and creams from residents and businesses. Two clients have also been helped with money or equipment to heat their homes.

All these gestures are coordinated in part with the Children’s Aid Society, which has distributed similar angels for clients in other parts of the County, and in part to take pressure off the food bank in Picton, which serves the eastern half of the County. “When I started, this I wanted to make sure Picton got a lot of the pressure off, because we should be covering our own families in our own area,” says Downey.

The food bank can still use some help with donations and volunteers, but is well on its way to be ready for December 17, when Christmas presents and hampers are distributed, and the Storehouse closes its doors until January.

For Downey, this is a full-time, year-round job, with a break only at Christmas. She isn’t paid to do this— nor is she reimbursed for driving around the County picking up food, clothing and furniture being donated.

For Downey, it’s not a question of money, but of paying forward the kindness she received in her worst moment

“I was a single mom for eight years before I met my husband. And I had to have a Christmas hamper. I actually remember sitting at home thinking, ‘what am I going to do,’ and crying, because I had two little girls,” Downey recalls. “I had nothing for Christmas. And I was in school, trying to get adult re-education and taking computer classes.

“And Seventh Day Adventist church knocked on my door, and they had a Christmas hamper and two big boxes of presents for my girls. And I cried and cried, and said, ‘if I ever get on my feet, I will pay this back.’ And they said, ‘no, you don’t have to pay this back.’ I said, ‘I will,’ and they said, ‘no, this is what we do.’ So I said, ‘ok, well I’ll pay somebody back. I will pay this forward, I promise you.’ And I have.”

And what happens after Christmas?

“That’s when things die right down. For donations, not our clients.”

The worst months are May and June, because the money and food donated at Christmas and Easter last until then. After that there is a lull in donations that can last into the summer. Food drives help with non-perishables, but Downey says anyone who wants to help can also do so by buying vouchers or donating to the Storehouse’s account at Pierson’s Foodland so the food bank can offer clients fresh, healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, milk and eggs.