PELC donation

Parsons Brewing shows support for Learning Centre

On Monday morning, Parsons Brewing presented a cheque for $10,000 to the Prince Edward Learning Centre (PELC). It is the largest community donation ever received by PELC. The money was raised through two different initiatives at the brewery. The first was part of a Canada-wide support for small craft beer makers that involved over 40 breweries. A couple of hops and barley companies provided some supplies at no charge with the stipulation that the breweries make a beer called Isolation Nation. It was a way to help the craft brewers through the difficult COVID times. However, Chris Parsons of Parsons Brewing decided to take it a step further. The brewery has been doing quite well through the pandemic and Chris and his wife, Samantha, wanted to do something to give back to the local community. So they reached out to their other suppliers— label printers, label designers, yeast suppliers, mobile canning company—to ask for donations so they could make the Isolation Nation brew and have more of the proceeds go to PELC. With the help of these suppliers and absorbing a little bit of the costs themselves, Parsons was able to donate $1 from the sale of each can of beer. Chris was thrilled with the support they received. “It was very heartwarming. We like to think that we try to be there for our community, and when we ask our [brewing] community to help with a cause we feel very strongly about, they all answered the call, so we’re very thankful for them.”

The second initiative was the Canoe in the County event that was a lead-up to Countylicious. This event connected local chefs with chefs from Toronto, using County produce and wines to provide a multi-course meal. All of the chefs, which included Enid Grace, Hidde Zomer, Elliot Reynolds, Albert Ponzo and Samantha Valdivia from the County, donated their time, and much of the meat and produce used was also donated. “We saw this as a great community effort, and we jumped at the opportunity and wanted to ensure that we could give back to the community,” said Samantha Parsons. “The donated time and food meant that we could carve out more funds to the donation. It was a beautiful event and the feedback was fantastic, and we were really happy to be able to give back to the community during a time that is so tough as we head into the winter months. We chose PELC because it is very near and dear to our hearts. I have seen firsthand the great work that they do. Our family has been involved with PELC and we’ve seen it in our staff. I think what works about what Kathy [Kennedy] and her team do is that they really meet the individual where they need to be met. They really assess the individual and what their specific needs are and they really support them at their level. I think that’s why PELC really works.”

PELC Executive Director Kathy Kennedy was thrilled to receive the donation. “It’s a huge vote of confidence from the community. Just knowing that people are thinking of us and supporting the work is a huge thing,” she said. “This will help with programs that we know are really important but don’t necessarily have a direct funding source. Things like our community volunteer income tax program, and our work around the Good Food Market. What we’re all about is supporting people in employment and education, but we know that you can’t always get to that until you stabilize your base, and these are things that are harder to find in terms of programming. So this support will go directly to those programs, and it’s going to be huge now, but also coming up next year with what we anticipate will happen to the economy.” She said the Learning Centre has had to make a number of significant changes due to the ongoing pandemic. “We had a drop-in culture for people to come in and find us, and when that all changed we had to think about how we were going to reach out to people. We did porch visits, we took people grocery cards, we delivered books and learning plans. We supported people to get computers and Internet, and this support will really help with that as well. People are now coming back. We’re doing limited once a week one-hour coaching sessions, and we continue to run our INSPIRE program digitally. We’ve trained-inplace 20 people during COVID. We’re still doing what we’re supposed to do, and we’re trying to find new ways to do it.” For more information about PELC, please visit princeedwardlearningcentre.com.

PELC board members and staff gather at Parsons Brewing to receive a $10,000 donation. Front row (L-R): Board chair Jane Macdonald, Samantha and Chris Parsons. Back row (L-R): Robyn Cakebread, Lori Farrington, PELC Executive Director Kathy Kennedy, Jewelle Edwards and Chantal Edwards.