Gleaners Food Bank has unveiled its plans to institute a food redistribution centre, with funding from Hastings County.
Peter Kerr, executive director at Gleaners, showed off the plans during Wednesday’s meeting of Hastings County Community and Human Services Committee.
The redistribution centre came about as part of an arrangement with Hastings County and is funded by the county. Food collected from community partners or donations will be brought to the centre, packaged, bundled, and distributed to where in the community people are in need.
Mayor Don Degenova of Tweed praised the initiative, saying that not everyone who is food insecure can make it to food banks in the larger communities.
“Food insecurity is huge in my community, with 25% of the youth on both of our local public and Catholic schools being food insecure,” said Mayor Degenova. “Also, 50% of the people who currently access our food bank are seniors. So this is a huge concern in my community.”
The centre is planned to be fully online by January 1, 2027.
