NL Eats: Volunteers pull together 60 food hampers for Thanksgiving weekend

NL Eats began as a Facebook group to share reviews and highlight local restaurants throughfinancial hardships stemming from Snowmageddon in January and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Today the group operates as a food bank, and through donations was able to put together 60 food hampers, which volunteers distributed to homes throughout St. John's over the Thanksgiving weekend.

"One of the coolest things about our food bank is that we are a mobile food bank," Lindsay Newman, director of external affairs for NL Eats, told CBC News on Sunday.

"Most food banksyou actually have to provide your own transportation in order to go pick up your food. Butwhen everything shut down for the pandemic we realized not everyone had access to transportation."

Roughly 20 volunteers came together on Saturday and Sunday to put together the food hampers. Some collected the food, some assembledthe hampersand others delivered them.

Butthe group extends beyond the 20 people who offered their time this weekend to ensure those in need had food on their tables.

Newman said the group consists of about 100 volunteers, all working toward the same goal of tackling food insecurity. While the food bank portion of the group remains on hold until a permanent location can be found to house its operation, Newman said the Thanksgiving weekend is an important one and it was necessary to provide the service.

"We wanted to make sure this weekend specifically we could put together the turkey dinner hampers and deliver those," she said.

Looking ahead

Newman said donations from the YMCA and Community Food Centres Canada made this weekend possible, andNL Eats volunteers chipped in by running a recycling drive that earned about $200 to add to the cause.

"That major donation that we secured through those organizations helped us to be able to provide turkey, ham, fresh vegetables, hygiene products, eggs, milk, canned food," Newman said.

"There was tons of different things in that hamper. It brought it from 20 per cent to 100 per cent, which was a major help and we could not have done it without them."

The group hopes to branch out across the province to provide the same mobile food bank service, but for now Christmas is next on the agenda.

"I think now we recognized the kinds of different fundraising we can do for an opportunity like this. So I think if we start fundraising now for Christmas we could do way more than 60 [food hampers]," Newman said.

"It's just magical to see the community come together in a time like this."

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