Staff of Bradford RONA were at the food bank on Tuesday to drop off a donation of $17,000.
Earlier this year RONA held fundraisers to benefit the Helping Hand Food Bank in Bradford West Gwillimbury. In total, $15,002 was raised for the food bank, and with an additional $2,000 donation from RONA’s head office, $17,002 was donated to Helping Hand.
John Jenne, Brad Bartlett, and Montana Wicks from RONA made the donation official with a cheque presentation to Helping Hand’s Executive Director Carolyn Khan. Mayor James Leduc and councillors Peter Ferragine and Ben Verkaik were also in attendance.
“It’s so important to have community relationships and RONA has been incredible,” said Khan. “It’s a testament to how well they run their business and how well they know their customers to have all their customers donate. RONA ran so many fundraisers for us this summer and fall to contribute to this.
“We’re in a slight time of crisis and our food bank is feeling the brunt of the increased cost of food; our clients are turning to us more and more everyday with the increased cost of living, and so this is an amazing bonus for us to be able to purchase more food.”
After raising $7,200 for charity with the fundraiser last year (for New Path), RONA set a goal of raising $8,500 this year for the food bank and nearly doubled it.
“We set the bar high,” said Jenne, RONA Bradford's store manager. “We blew it out of the water and were fifth best in the country. We’re hopeful that this money can do a lot of good. We’re a small store with a big heart, a service like this is invaluable and every dollar counts.”
With more people reaching out for support, especially around the holiday season, Khan says it makes donations like this all the more important.
“The holiday crunch affects us more than the rest of the year. At our food bank we offer a holiday hamper program,” she explained. “We give a hamper of food to clients on our delivery list and a grocery gift card to our regular clients.
The hamper program will cost $41,000 this year.
"It’s a huge cost to our food bank but we feel it’s necessary because we want to give people the chance to buy their own Christmas meal and share food with their loved ones," said Khan.