Our District Conference service project to assist the Food4Kids Niagara Program raised almost $5700 in requested food items and an additional $1050 in monetary donations. St. Catharines Lakeshore would also like to make a special shout-out to St. Catharines South for their $1600 value Food donation to the Drive!
The Rotary Club of St. Catharines Lakeshore recently held a Food Drive on Friday October 22 to assist the Food4Kids Niagara Program. Club members staffed collection bins at two No Frills stores in St. Catharines from 1 to 5 p.m. After sorting and counting at Food4Kids, the Community responded by donating almost $5700 in requested food items and an additional $1050 in monetary donations.
Food4Kids provides packages of healthy food for children up to 14 years with limited or no access to food each weekend. The food packages are assembled by volunteers and delivered to schools each Friday to ensure children have nourishment over the weekend. There are over 1500 children in Niagara struggling through each weekend without enough food. Rotarians passed out lists of most needed items to create these packages to customers as they entered each of the two No Frills stores located at 581 Lake Street and at 525 Welland Avenue on Friday.
It’s hard to believe children in our very own community go hungry, but it's a reality faced by children each and every day. It’s not that parents do not want to feed their kids….they can’t. The worsening economy, job loss, working poor, illness, mental health, marriage breakdown and those fleeing their home country to seek safe refuge in Canada, are some of the reasons a parent will turn to Food4Kids for support. Food4Kids is funded through donations or one-time grants. While hunger exists around the world, it is their hope to address hunger in our home community.
 Food4Kids Committee Chair Marlene Mader and Bryan Pett on-site at Food Basics. | |