On April 20, 2023, Cornwall Food Basics store managers Perry McCabe and Pat Rennick met at the Brookdale Avenue location to present a $22,421 cheque to the Agape Centre from the Out of Reach program.
The Out of Reach initiative matches every $2 donation with a Food Basics gift card of the same value (up to a maximum of $250,000). It has been run in Cornwall for two years now during the holidays, with the last donation being over $17,000 around Thanksgiving.
Food Basics is also part of the One More Bite program – an initiative from its parent company, Metro Inc. – that fights food waste by donating quality unsold products to local food banks.
“It’s stuff that would go to the garbage that doesn’t need to go to the garbage,” said Rennick, “At least it’s going to feed somebody,”
Since it can be hard to grasp what it would cost to run the Agape Centre Community Kitchen and Market, Seaway News asked Executive Director Lisa Duprau for some perspective.
“For instance, we just purchased a skid of corn… a skid of corn is $2,000,” Duprau explained, “For the month of March, we were servicing 3,200 people (up from 1,200 in March of 2020).”
As always, the Agape Centre is grateful for the community’s ongoing support, especially during these inflationary times where many families are struggling to make ends meet.
