$300K for Mount kitchen

Anonymous donation allows completion of Food Centre for new community programs

The construction of The Mount’s Food Centre will be completed thanks to a sizeable, anonymous donation.

Stephen Kylie, president of The Mount Community Centre, accepted a $300,000 cheque from the Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough (CFGP) at The Mount Thursday.

The foundation donated the funds on behalf of a donor who supports The Mount, but didn’t want to be named.

CFGP is a public foundation that works with charitable donors to help address some of the area’s greatest needs. It also creates endowment funds.

John Good, CFGP executive director, said some donors need help deciding where their donation would be most beneficial. But this donor knew exactly where they wanted their money to go.

“In this case, we had a donor who fully appreciates what The Mount is doing and the opportunity it provides our community and asked us to help be an enabler of this campaign,” said Good.

The funds are going into the Building Opportunity Campaign and will allow for the completion of the construction of the Food Centre.

The Food Centre will offer programs and services such as a Food Innovation Centre, community gardens, a café, catering services, and demonstration and educational opportunities.

It’s replacing The Mount’s original kitchen built in 1952, which was dismantled with the Sisters of St. Joseph left the property in 2009.

That’s the same year CFGP launched and the $300,000 contribution to The Mount is the largest figure it’s donated since it opened.

Receiving such a significant donation to help get the Food Centre up and running tells Kylie that residents are behind what The Mount is trying to do – which is to create affordable housing and a food centre where residents can learn to cook.

“I think that’s really, really impressive that we are reaching out to the community and they are getting to know what we’re doing here and they’re ready to get behind it,” Kylie said.

The next steps are buying and installing kitchen equipment.

If all goes well, Kylie said he hopes the Food Centre will be finished by February or March.

JESSICA NYZNIK/EXAMINER Diane Richard, Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough (CFGP) board chairman, left, Stephen Kylie, The Mount's president, Sue Maziotti Armitage, The Mount Food Centre committee volunteer chairwoman, and John Good, executive director CFGP, celebrate a $300,000 donation to the Food Centre in the kitchen of The Mount on Thursday. The donation was made anonymously through CFGP.