Chatham-Kent: School bus food drive called best ever

Chatham Kent School bus food drive called best ever

Organizers are hailing the latest Fill the Bus food drive to help the needy the best ever.

Nearly nine skids of food and more than $831 were collected in Chatham as residents stepped up to donate.

Members of Helping Hands – made up of volunteers from Chatham Goodfellows, FreeHelpCK, Giving Hearts, La Sertoma, ROCK Missions and Chatham Outreach for Hunger – were stationed at school buses parked at grocery stores across Chatham on Saturday.

“We want to thank the community,” said Tim Haskell, one of the organizers.

The drive’s success couldn’t happen without bus companies First Student and Badder donating the use of their buses and their employees volunteering to drive them, Haskell said.

He also thanked grocers No Frills in Chatham, Wallaceburg and Tilbury, Food Basics, Giant Tiger, Sobeys, Real Canadian Superstore and Foodland stores in Tilbury, Ridgetown and Dresden for allowing food donations to be collected at their stores. .

Haskell said the Fill the Bus campaign did well in all communities, adding donations collected in those communities stay there.

  1. The fourth Fill the Bus drive to help replenish the shelves at Outreach for Hunger food bank in Chatham was a success Saturday.  Outreach for Hunger executive director Brenda LeClair, left, is seen here with organizer Tim Haskell, left, his grandson, Carson Haskell, 3, and daughter, Amanda Haskell, with donations collected at Food Basics in Chatham.  (Ellwood Shreve/Chatham Daily News)

    Community helps fill bus with donations for local food bank

  2. Dorothy Wright-Wallace, president of the Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society, left, and Geri Hughson, founder of FreeHelpCK, are shown beside the new food pantry at BME Freedom Park in Chatham.  (Trevor Terfloth/The Daily News)

    Food pantry opens at BME Freedom Park

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