Pre-made meals donated to Carmichael Outreach
Community members help out as service centre struggles to keep up with demand
A love of cooking and weekends stuck at home turned into so much more for Bryan Baker when he decided to combine the two in support of Carmichael Outreach.
After hearing that Carmichael was in need of food donations and was taking pre-made meals, Baker knew this was one way he could help others in need during the COVID -19 pandemic.
He and his wife Lisa decided they would cook enough food for dozens of meals over the weekend, and arranged to drop off the meals at Carmichael every Monday morning so volunteers could distribute the food.
“I’m addicted to cooking and to finding good deals at grocery stores, so for me it’s just feeding my foodie addiction anyway,” Baker said in a recent phone interview.
The couple put out a call on Facebook, asking people for donations of takeout food containers or groceries they could use to make and package the meals.
They had not been anticipating the incredible outpouring of support they received.
So far, Baker said he has raised around $1,400.
Food donations have also come hard and fast, and he is still coming up with meals to use the 15 pounds of lentils, 10 pounds of onions, 12 pounds of dry pasta and 23 pounds of pork short ribs that have been donated. Someone even donated a freezer so they could store meat and finished meals during the week.
In the four weeks Baker has been doing this, he has donated a total of 230 meals. And he has no intention of stopping.
“It’s been overwhelming,” he said. “I’m surprised it’s gotten as large as it did.”
For the past three weeks, Robert Byers and Xiu Li have also been giving away between 50 and 75 lunches a day.
Byers said he and Li started making the meals when they saw how many people were waiting outside Carmichael for food one day, and they realized how difficult it must be for Carmichael to support everyone in this time.
Every day, as the two of them handed out meals in a physically distanced line, Byers was amazed at the stories people would share and how thankful everyone was for a simple sandwich or a hot meal.
“We almost didn’t go out one day because it rained, and you just think how our lives are so different than those that are homeless,” he said. “So what’s a little bit of rain? Who really cares? They’re still hungry.”
Byers said his last day handing out meals was on Friday. He doesn’t have plans to continue at the moment, as feeding that many people was becoming expensive, and Li, who did the majority of the cooking, returned to her home in British Columbia.
Rochelle Berenyi, director of development for Carmichael, said the organization has been struggling to feed the estimated 200 people per day like it usually does since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
When Carmichael shut its doors to the public and began limiting the number of staff and volunteers that could be in the building, it became much more difficult for fewer staff to prepare the same number of meals.
A call went up on Facebook for pre-made meals and Berenyi said the community has stepped up to answer.
“It’s kind of just blown up. We’ve seen so many people that have just been really eager to do this,” she said, adding she hopes the donation of meals continues for many weeks to come.
Baker and Byers both encouraged others to get involved in whatever way they can.
Baker also noted if anyone had commercial kitchen space to donate, that would allow him to make more meals at a time.
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