{"id":26371,"date":"2020-04-16T15:09:44","date_gmt":"2020-04-16T19:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26371"},"modified":"2020-04-23T17:45:04","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T21:45:04","slug":"optimists-help-spread-easter-cheer-to-families-in-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/optimists-help-spread-easter-cheer-to-families-in-need\/","title":{"rendered":"Optimists help spread Easter cheer to families in need"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Carts were wiped down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maps of aisles were charted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social distancing was practiced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And hand-sewn masks were donned just to be on the safe\nside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volunteers were not leaving anything to chance as they\nembarked on their mission early on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their mission was simple: helping families in need have\nfood on the table over Easter Weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drawn from the ranks of the Optimist Club of Aurora, this\nvolunteer crew descended on No Frills last week armed with three things: two\ncheques of $500 to help families make ends meet by providing the essentials,\nand determination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAbout a month ago, the Optimists did a shopping trip of\nabout $500 realizing there was a need here in Aurora,\u201d says Sandy Bundy of the\nOptimist Club of Aurora. \u201cWe did a shopping of $500 and took it to the Aurora\nFood Pantry. Then we designated another $500 for the Food Pantry and No Frills,\nwhich has been a sponsor of ours in the past, donated another $500 for our\nshopping last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFirst of all, we contacted the Food Pantry to see what\nthey needed and learned they have had problems getting shipping from some of\ntheir suppliers. They just needed to have food on the shelves, so I got a list\nfrom the Food Pantry, went online and priced the best deals, gave everybody a\nshopping list, then we all met outside and picked our groceries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo Frills was amazing. Knowing we were coming, they had\nstaff there at the front door, let us in, had carts ready for us and they were\nreally welcoming. Russ, the owner of the store, gave us our $500 card and off\nwe went.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Food Pantry\u2019s needs were the simple staples: milk,\ncheese, carrots, potatoes, apples, oranges, rice and margarine, along with soup\nand canned vegetables. But the Optimists went a step further, securing Easter\ngoodies for the kids for an Easter that turned out to be anything but normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe wanted to make sure Easter wouldn\u2019t be missed by\nthem,\u201d says Ms. Bundy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Optimist Club of Aurora\u2019s mandate is to work with\nyouth, but they recognize the importance of families at this trying time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are struggling and not having enough food will\ncreate a lot of stress, which makes it difficult on parents, as well as\nchildren,\u201d she says. \u201cWe wanted them to not miss out on Easter, so we picked up\nsome things that were kid-friendly and a bit of a treat on top of the\nnecessities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Optimists delivered their supplies to the Industrial\nParkway-based food bank just after lunch on Wednesday, giving the Food Pantry\nenough time to have the products on shelves by the time clients came by to have\nfood delivered to their cars or to a safe drop-off location on site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all trying to be useful and the Food Pantry has a\nhuge need, so we\u2019re just really happy to help in some small way,\u201d says Ms.\nBundy. \u201cIt is going to take a lot more than what we were able to do. The Food\nPantry said the food we delivered on Wednesday would all be gone by Thursday\nand that was just the $1,000 we brought in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more on the Aurora Food Pantry and how you can help, including a list of the most pressing needs, visit aurorafoodpantry.ca or call 905-841-1577.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carts were wiped down. Maps of aisles were charted. Social distancing was practiced. And hand-sewn masks were donned just to be on the safe side. Volunteers were not leaving anything to chance as they embarked on their mission early on Wednesday morning. Their mission was simple: helping families in need have food on the table […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/2020-04-16-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Rl","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-13 13:36:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}