{"id":31096,"date":"2022-04-07T20:41:38","date_gmt":"2022-04-08T00:41:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=31096"},"modified":"2022-04-07T20:41:43","modified_gmt":"2022-04-08T00:41:43","slug":"no-frills-optimists-fill-food-pantrys-freezer-addressing-food-trends-and-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/no-frills-optimists-fill-food-pantrys-freezer-addressing-food-trends-and-needs\/","title":{"rendered":"No Frills, Optimists fill Food Pantry\u2019s freezer, addressing food trends and needs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Clients of the Aurora Food Pantry will have some further fresh options thanks to the Joe and Val\u2019s No Frills and the Optimist Club of Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This past winter, the local grocery store on Yonge Street at Murray Drive teamed up with the Optimists for Fill the Freezer, an effort to collect hundreds of pounds of food to fill the Pantry\u2019s new walk-in freezer, all the while collecting donations from customers at the cash registers that would only further their efforts to provide for families in need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results of the campaign \u2013 hundreds of pounds of freshly-frozen vegetables, fish, meat and more, not to mention a healthy infusion of cash \u2013 were delivered to the Aurora Food Pantry on Friday afternoon by grocers Joe Cappiello and Valerie Lemoustre and a host of local Optimists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s awesome to be able to give back to the people who need it and they do great work,\u201d said Cappiello of the Food Pantry. \u201cThere is obviously a great need for the people in the community and there\u2019s so much food that goes to waste which shouldn\u2019t go to waste.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aurora Food Pantry Board Chair Allison Stuart said the donation helped the food bank meet today\u2019s needs, but these needs are always fluctuating and needs might be very different tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy having a walk-in freezer, which is just amazing, we\u2019re able to respond to some of those fluid needs in a greater way than we were before,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople are getting the message that we\u2019ve been told many times that fresh food is good for you and it is easy to use. Clients are feeling more comfortable asking for that, and also asking for what they\u2019re used to. What did you grow up with? If you grew up and canned goods just weren\u2019t part of your diet, they\u2019re unlikely to be very attractive to you now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the look on the clients\u2019 face when we have [what they\u2019re familiar with]. Before the pandemic started, there was a new couple coming in who hadn\u2019t been here before. They were international and taking them around I saw something I couldn\u2019t read and said, \u2018Would this be of any interest?\u2019 The woman started to cry. I thought, \u2018What have I done now?\u2019 Her husband explained to me that in fact this was a really popular snack where she came from and to see it and to have it available when she was coming into the food bank for the very first time was a really important moment for her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to make more people cry in a good way!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHappy tears,\u201d said Lemoustre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Board member Maureen Casey said everyone \u201cdeserves to have healthy food\u201d and for the Food Pantry to be able to offer that is something simple that will go a long way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone deserves healthy food, not just whatever is available, regardless of where you are in life right now,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s something we\u2019re trying to do: we want to ensure that all products are provided, but if we can offer some additional healthy, nutritious alternatives, why shouldn\u2019t we? Health goes a long way and the pride of being able to provide quality, healthy food is just as important to us as it is for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recognition of the partnership and the donation, following the delivery the Aurora Food Pantry presented No Frills and the Optimists with a special plaque that will be given pride of place inside their place of operations on Industrial Parkway South, right next to the walk-in freezer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is our way of saying thank you to No Frills and, of course, the Optimist Club, in terms of all the work that you do,\u201d said Stuart in her presentation. \u201cEven when I phone you on a Friday and say, \u2018I need 120-dozen eggs!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe really feel it is important that the people in Aurora know when they donate to the Aurora Food Pantry the food is coming here and it is going out to people who are living in Aurora and north Oak Ridges who are in need. It\u2019s a matter of give where you live and supporting your neighbours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more on how to support or access the Aurora Food Pantry, along with an updated list of current needs, visit aurorafoodpantry.ca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Clients of the Aurora Food Pantry will have some further fresh options thanks to the Joe and Val\u2019s No Frills and the Optimist Club of Aurora. This past winter, the local grocery store on Yonge Street at Murray Drive teamed up with the Optimists for Fill the Freezer, an effort to collect hundreds of pounds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31096","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\/2022\/04\/2022-04-07-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-85y","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 00:04:06","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\/31096","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=31096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}