Thunder Bay, ON, Canada / Country 105 | Thunder Bay s Country
Jun 2, 2021 | 10:17 AM
Thunder Bay’s Regional Food Distribution Association (RFDA) has launched a pilot project, backed by volunteers in Southern Ontario.
The Veggie Hamper project sees vegetables pre-packaged in Windsor and Leamington, and shipped to Thunder Bay for local distribution.
Executive Director Volker Kromm says having vegetables ready to be distributed upon arrival in the city helps speed up the process and prevents food waste.
“It works overall if the entire load is spoken for, and within hours of it arriving we have it distributed to various agencies” says Kromm, “and sometimes people have 3 to 5 days of vegetables.”
The Regional Food Distribution Association in northwestern Ontario is working with the Plentiful Harvest Food Rescue Program in Windsor and Leamington to send pre-packaged vegetable hampers for distribution to local and regional food banks.
The produce comes from greenhouses in the Windsor and Leamington areas in southwestern Ontario.
A dozen retired volunteers with
Plentiful Harvest in the two communities filled a large truck with veggie hampers for shipment to the Regional Food Distribution Association in Thunder Bay.
On Monday, workers at the RFDA delivered 26 pallets containing 70 hampers each to a number of local food banks, which will in turn hand them out to their clients this week.
Volker Kromm, the executive director at the RFDA, said when shipments of vegetables arrive in bulk, there s often considerable waste. This is a step up in our commitment to do healthy, Kromm said.
Posted: May 11, 2021 8:00 AM ET | Last Updated: May 11
Amanda Pickett, the facilitator for InclusivACTION Pickle Lake, says her first goal is to determine the needs of the community.(Submitted by Amanda Pickett)
Fresh vegetables, access to medical care, or going out for a quick run to a store is not always a possibility in Pickle Lake, Ont.
The small community, population 400, is about 540 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay. The community is at the end of Highway 599, with the former mining town serving as an access point to more northern and remote communities.
Isolation and a small population pose challenges, said Amanda Pickett, the facilitator for InclusivACTION Pickle Lake. The group received a provincial grant, and will determine the needs of the community.
THUNDER BAY - A century-old grain elevator on the city’s south side will remain standing, much to the disappointment of nearby property owners.
The Riverside Grain Products structure sits on the banks of the Kaministiquia River and was built more than 100 years ago. Environmental assessments and public information sessions were held in 2017 to prepare the structure for possible demolition.
The property was forfeited to the provincial government in 2018 with possible demolition taking place in 2019, but a spokesperson with Infrastructure Ontario said there are no plans for demolition at this time.
“When the property was forfeited to the province in 2018 (by the city) there was a different process in place,” the spokesperson said.