Easter food drive for Project SHARE spreads hope in the Falls

Shannon Baka figured Good Friday was a good day to teach her kids a few valuable lessons.

That giving and helping others is noble.

That life isn’t always fair, and there are those who for a host of reasons struggle in life.

Baka works with Ruth Houde, a congregation member at Mountain Park Church on Mountain Road in Niagara Falls.

When Houde told her about the church’s annual efforts to feed the hungry at the Easter weekend food drive it holds in partnership with various other churches in the city, Baka thought it was something her children could learn from.

“When she mentioned it, I thought it would be a great opportunity for the kids to learn to help the less fortunate,” she said, as she helped pack a Project SHARE van with food dropped off at the church on Good Friday.

Working alongside her were her kids Natalie, Johnny, Joseph and Joshua, as well as Houde.

As a mom with a hungry brood of growing kids, Baka is no stranger to how expensive food can be.

“It’s terrible what food costs these days,” she said.

Mountain Park Church started the annual food drive 14 years ago when new pastor Herm Plett arrived, with church members delivering 5,000 paper bags to homes in the hope of getting people to donate non-perishable food.

Things have grown mightily since then.

Plett, with congregation members at the church on Friday, said the partnership his church now has with Church at the Falls, Redeemer Bible Church, Chippawa Presbyterian Church, the Niagara Worship Centre and Drummond Hill Presbyterian Church saw volunteers hand deliver 33,000 donation bags to homes in every corner of the city this year.

Volunteers then fanned out again over the weekend and picked up filled bags left on doorsteps, before delivering them to Project SHARE.

Plett’s church congregation alone delivered 6,000 bags and raised $10,000 to purchase the bags. He said his church members feel it’s important to continue to play a lead in the food drive.

“This is where the vision originated,” he said. “We always want to set the bar.

“Even though we have been doing it for years, we are stepping up more than ever to invest in our community, to make our community a better place to live.”

Plett, whose church works closely with Project SHARE, said the charity’s food bank — along with other food banks in Niagara — continues to see massive demand from families struggling with stark choices such as whether to pay rent or utilities or put food on the table.

“Families are in so much need in Niagara,” he said. “With the poverty we have here, there’s a real need.”

Project SHARE statistics show its food bank usage has soared by 26 per cent since the recession of 2008, with 60,000 to 70,000 pounds of food per month given out.

In its last fiscal year, the agency helped almost 40,000 people with emergency food.

This year, people were encouraged to take selfies shopping or filling the bags and share them using the hashtag #ForNiagara.

The bags also had a simple message printed on their fronts: ‘When you fill this bag, you spread kindness and hope.’