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Cramming for Christmas
On a crisp, windy Sunday morning, the small congregation of the Consecon United Church gathers for its weekly service. Amid the prayers and hymns, grandchildren fidgeted in their seats while grandparents looked on and smiled.
And from prayer leader, Margaret Miron, a reminder that there is always someone worse off, someone to help. Not for pride or praise, but because it’s the right thing to do.
The message, for those who are a member of a church congregation as much as for anyone else, is one Linda Downey thinks is important.
The force behind the Storehouse food bank, which operates in Wellington but serves the entire western half of Prince Edward County, Downey has been visiting several congregations and community groups, getting the word out as Christmas nears that the food bank needs a helping hand.
Downey was invited to the church for the service and spoke to the congregation about donating, helping out, and the various programs and initiatives the food bank organizes for the holiday season.
But she also spoke of her own experiences, running from an abusive childhood, finding herself as a teen mother, trapped in an abusive relationship and, after years, going into hiding.
Speaking to the congregation, she recalled being a single mother, barely able to cover the bills, without food or presents for her kids as Christmas arrived.
“I went from one nightmare to another nightmare. I was abused for over 10 years… in 1986 I finally got out of there and I had to go into a hiding shelter for two years with my two girls,” says Downey. “I remember working three jobs, trying to survive. And one Christmas, I had nothing. I had no food, no presents, nothing.”
She recalled the moment she felt her life was saved. While living in Belleville, a group of Seventh Day Adventists visited her at home with a Christmas hamper, full of food and toys. She hadn’t reached out for help. It came to her.
She recalled collapsing in tears.
And she recalled a promise she made that day, to pay it forward.
She has.
Today, Downey’s life is good. She has a stable, loving marriage and her children are grown and healthy. As soon as she was able, she began the Storehouse. She has given all her free time, sometimes more than is reasonable, to build a resource for those in the community who need it most.
Today, she says some people can’t believe she had ever been in such a terrible situation.
“I just want people to understand that if you see somebody coming to the food bank and they’re in their 70s and 80s, it’s very hard for them, they’re very prideful, they’ve worked all their lives,” says Downey. “That could be my mother, that could be my grandmother.”
She urges people not to judge their neighbours. Not to question those who visit the food bank, whose troubles may be unknown to others. Not to look down on those who, despite their pride, feel they have no other choice.
The Storehouse will be 10 years old in 2017. Perhaps not an occasion to celebrate, but certainly one to reflect upon. Downey says she is seeing more seniors use the food bank, and is concerned that heavy hydro bills and a lack of affordable housing is driving some of her clients out of the County altogether, moving instead to less expensive municipalities nearby, although moving in itself is often a costly option.
And for the holiday season? Downey says while volunteer participation has ramped up, the Storehouse is still in need of warm clothing, toys for the Christmas Angel program—one tree is available at Cascades in Consecon—food and monetary donations.
“Christmas time, people love to give,” says Downey. “That’s when we can get all the food, because people are going away and they are cleaning out their cupboards and saying, I’m not going to be here for three months, so here’s a pile of food, which gets us by until March. We have to, because January, February, we get no cheques in at all. People are done. They’re spent. They’re finished.”
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