Holiday mac and cheese drive back for another round in Sarnia

Maybe this will be the year The Eye Guy returns as champion of the “Mack down” in Sarnia’s Mitton Village.

Article content

Article content

Article content

For the last five years, businesses in the city neighborhood have encouraged customers and friends to bring in donations of boxes of Kraft Dinner in the weeks leading up to Christmas to help stock shelves at the Inn of the Good Shepherd’s food bank.

Most years, Chrissy McRoberts’ Dog Eat Dog wins the title for collecting the most food but Beth Kolthoff, owner of The Eye Guy, came out on top one year and was closed a second year.

“It is a friendly competition,” McRoberts said. “But I lose all the time,” Kolthoff added.

The competition is open to business in the neighborhood and Dog Eat Dog and The Eye Guy have been consistent competitors since it began.

McRoberts, who is also a city councilor, said the idea for the food drive came to her during a meeting of the Mitton Village Citizens Collective, a group of residents and business owners in the neighborhood.

Article content

Social media posts by the businesses help promote the drive and Kolthoff is credited with coming up with the “Mac Down” title.

Record keeping is hit and miss but they estimated more than 8,000 boxes of mac and cheese has been collected for the food bank during the years.

“People want to help,” McRoberts said.

“It’s just a fun way to give back,” Kolthoff said.

This year’s drive will continue until Christmas Eve.

“It’s awesome,” said Myles Vanni, executive director of the Inn of the Good Shepherd, a Sarnia charity which operates a food bank and other programs for those in need.

“At one time, we’d often have lots of it in stock,” he said. “Like everything else, the price of Kraft Dinner has gone up so much. It’s something we often run low on.”

Article content

The Inn’s food bank is used by about 2,200 people each month, Vanni said. “A couple of years ago we were averaging 1,850.”

With the rising cost of groceries, the Inn is also seeing fewer food donations coming through its doors, he said.

“Our Thanksgiving food drive did half of what it would normally do,” Vanni said.

But the Christmas season is typically a good one for donations, including ones like the Mitton Street drive and others where residents, schools and other groups organize collections for the Inn, he said.

“Which is even more critical now to be able to get through the winter,” Vanni said.

“Normally the food we bring in at Christmas would last us into February, but I’m worried that may not be the case this year.”

Article content

The Inn has had to spend more money recently buying food to stock its shelves and “fill in the gaps,” he said.

A Cops for Cans food drive by Sarnia police in November collected more than 6,200 kg of food for the Inn. That’s about 900 kg above the total drive collected in 2023.

Friday, 5 pm to 9 pm, and Saturday, noon to 7 pm, Sarnia police will hold the annual Cram a Cruiser toy drive near Toys “R” Us at Lambton Mall for the Inn.

“We have over 500 families adopted for Christmas,” Vanni said. “Those families will have something under the tree for their kids.”

[email protected]
@ObserverPaulM

Article content