The Fresh Food Program

The Fresh Food Program supplies fresh fruits & veggies to ppl who can't afford
any- for many of the ppl who use our pgm this is their ONLY source of fresh food. On Saturdays we supply families, 'satellite food pgms', and most of the volunteers. On Sunday we supply single ppl in need of food.

The FFP is awesome because:

1) We do a lot with very little. By buying food in bulk & thru the volunteer power of ppl helping ppl, we have invested in the health & wellbeing of a great many ppl.

2) This is a unique pgm in that it is the ONLY pgm of its kind in K-W run by low income ppl themselves. Over 10 yrs (that's 520 wks!) we have managed to keep the pgm running via the dedicated, creative, & innovative efforts of ppl who are keen on helping others, while benefiting from the pgm themselves.

3) This is the ONLY fd pgm in K-W which provides healthy fresh food rather than canned & processed "non-perishable", high calorie, non-nutritional, food bank food to low income ppl.

4) We have helped an unbelievable number of ppl over the yrs. We have even supplied local shelters & meal pgms with fresh food when enough is available.

We like to see this pgm as an inspiration to others. The FFP has spawned many neighborhood food pgms (which rely on us for food), and has even inspired a similar pgm in London Ont.

Surprisingly the powers that be seem to have no interest in funding grass roots pgms of this kind. Even so, social services regularly sends ppl to us for food! This is because they know that ppl living on social assistance, after paying rent & utilities, have no budget left for food & other necessities.

We encourage users of the pgm to make a small donation towards food purchases but few can. On the other hand, we have a wide network of volunteers in place which can handle getting any amount of food out to those who need it. More than anything, this is a question of funding. Everything else is in place to get the food out0.!

Грант предоставил Kitchener-Waterloo (March 2013)