fresh food weekly barrie

Hey again, This afternoon I would like to tell you about another Fresh Food Weekly Recipient

Hey again, This afternoon I would like to tell you about another Fresh Food Weekly recipient who is actually the exact same age as me. As always, her story is really upsetting because it highlights an array of problems in “the system”. Firstly, this woman has a diagnosis for a crippling disease with no cure and it’s going to take at least three years for her to get any kind of financial aid because three years is how long it takes to “process” her application. Secondly, when she applied to get financial aid, one of the Barrie case workers was condescending to her. And thirdly, even if she does get approved for ODSP in 2025, she’ll be lucky to get even $900/month… and I know this because it’s what many others have shown me. This is her story… “I’ve recently been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) and I’m only 33-years-old,” the Barrie woman told me. MS is a disease where the nervous system attacks the nerve fibres in the brain and spinal cord. When this happens, it caus…

This afternoon I had the privilege of meeting with Andrea Khanjin at her office

This afternoon I had the privilege of meeting with Andrea Khanjin at her office in #Barrie. I would like to thank Andrea for taking the time to hear me out, and also for being interested in learning more about the first-hand accounts of the people who are struggling to survive in unbelievable “living” conditions here in our own backyards. It is no stretch of the imagination when I say there are thousands of people in our City who’re starving, and I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to inform our local MPP of just how bad things really are for so many, and just how little our government is actually doing about it. I am also delighted that Fresh Food Weekly has received recognition for the important work we do in our #community regarding feeding the vulnerable. Thank you so much highlighting our organization and for your words of encouragement. #FoodSecurityIsFreedom #foodsecurityprogram #foodcharity Source

I want to give a HUGE shoutout and thank you to Zehrs for this absolutely phenom

I want to give a HUGE shoutout and thank you to Zehrs for this absolutely phenomenal donation of school snacks for the Fresh Food Weekly School Snacks Food Drive! Today literally felt like Christmas! Thank you so much!! 🙏❤️👏 These school snacks are going to be given to low-income families living here in #Barrie on Sept. 1st! Not too long ago, I was speaking to an elementary school teacher in Orangeville and she told me that as kids were coming back to school after the pandemic lockdowns, more and more children were coming to school with absolutely no lunches at all. Since then, the prices of all things have gone way up and I can only imagine how many children will be coming to school with no lunches this year. Things are way worse now then they were only a few months ago and the cost of food literally keeps rising! If you would like to make a school snacks donation, we are accepting non-refrigerated school snacks including juice boxes, cookies, crackers, fruit roll ups, r…

Yesterday I sent out an email blast to all the current and past recipients

Yesterday I sent out an email blast to all the current and past recipients of the Fresh Food Weekly meal box delivery program and asked if anyone would be interested in talking to me about some of the struggles they’re facing, and if so, I would share their story on social media, to help people become more aware of what life is actually like for thousands of Canadians. I’m starting to realize that most of us are simply not aware of what is going on in our own backyards. I just got off the phone with a 74-year-old woman who left me in tears. Her husband died 11 years ago and he owned a successful glass window installation company in Mississauga. Their son ended up taking advantage of her financially after her husband passed and this is not the first time I’ve heard of adult children taking advantage of a vulnerable parent. He left her with nothing and now she’s living on a pension that doesn’t give her enough to eat or pay for necessary medical expenses. In her response to my…

Hey everyone, Fresh Food Weekly is hosting a School Snacks Food Drive for fami

Hey everyone, Fresh Food Weekly is hosting a School Snacks Food Drive for families with children in elementary school who aren’t able to afford food. This isn’t an exaggeration either. I personally know people who are actually going hungry, and with school starting just around the corner, there’s so much extra stress because families can’t even afford to send their kids to school with snacks. The CEO of Food Banks Canada says this summer is their toughest in history. Even the food bank in Barrie is experiencing the most amount of users they’ve ever had. For so many families right now, the food bank is the only way they’re able to eat at all 😞. So throughout the month of August, we’ll be accepting school snacks that don’t need to be refrigerated, for children in kindergarten to grade eight. Things like juice boxes, goldfish crackers, rice crispy squares, granola bars, bear paws, teddy grahams, etc., are more then welcome! Unfortunately we cannot accept items that contain…

Hey again everyone!

Hey again everyone! It’s me again, from Fresh Food Weekly… So we’re looking for some volunteers to help us with some raspberry picking at Barrie Hill Farms next week on Wednesday, July 20th beginning at 8am! We need to pick 60 half pints! So hopefully we can get a lot of help next week! Right now, there’s a 60% chance of lightning that day, so we’ll obviously cancel if that happens, but we’ll make the call that morning. The weather forecast is likely going to change a trillion times by then anyways! We’re also looking for some more delivery drivers to help out with delivering our July meal boxes later on in the day that day. We’ll be putting the meal boxes together at Countryside United Church beginning at 2pm and will start doing the deliveries between 3-3:30pm. If you would like to help out with either the raspberry picking or meal box deliveries, or both, please send me a PM 😃 we need all the help we can get!! … here’s a quick video of the strawberries we picked at B…