North Bay's fire department showed some goodwill on Thursday as it made a massive delivery of food to both the North Bay Food Bank and The Gathering Place soup kitchen.
Jason Whiteley, North Bay's fire chief, estimates the haul of goods gathered came in at close to 8,000 pounds
He says the fire department is always willing to help the Food Bank and The Gathering Place.
"This was just one of those great opportunities where you can get this much food and it is non-perishable food. It is in perfect little packs to give out to families so it can go a long way for both organizations," said Whiteley.
The fire department has done fill-a-fire truck initiatives in partnership with local grocery stores. They will be doing one at a North Bay area Metro soon.
But this food came from a different source.
"In this instance, an opportunity presented itself with Global Medic which is a humanitarian organization," explained Whiteley.
"They contacted me and said they had some food available, knowing that it is going to be a tough time for some of our citizens here so four of us took the drive down first thing Thursday morning through the storm to Oakville, loaded up and came back and the on-duty crew is helping us unload it.
"So we were able to get 7,000 to 8,000 pounds of food for both the Food Bank and The Gathering Place combined."
The four large skids of food were divided almost equally between the two organizations.
"It’s amazing," said Dennis Chippa, executive director of The Gathering Place.
"The contribution from the fire department is just an amazing addition to our pantry. We will definitely use this over the course of a fairly cold winter. Plus this is food that with the increased cost of food really helps our budget."
