Kaufman family donates $50,000 to food bank
A lot has changed in Community Care of St. Catharines and Thorold’s toy room over three decades.
Back in the 1980s, Maureen Kaufman volunteered in the toy room for the May Court Club. She decided to return this month to help the local food bank through the Christmas season.
What she saw shocked her.
“The big difference is the number of people,” Kaufman said of the higher level of demand the food bank now faces. “It was nothing like this when I was there in the past.”
The plight of the families she saw at Community Care was on her mind when she heard a Dec. 8 interview with food bank CEO Betty-Lou Souter on 105.7 EZ Rock during the Great Holiday Food Drive at city hall hosted by Bell Media’s local radio stations, including 610 CKTB and 97.7 HTZ FM.
During the interview, Souter said demand for the food bank’s holiday program is the highest it has been since 2009.
That was all Kaufman needed to hear. She decided to do something about it.
“So I went home and talked to my family and we decided we could do more to help,” said Kaufman, whose family operates Kenmore Homes.
On Monday morning, Kaufman, joined by her daughter Jennifer and son Kris, presented Souter with a $50,000 cheque.
Community Care needs to raise about $500,000 to provide food, toys and clothes for more than 3,000 local families.
“We still have a little way to go still, but this gets us a lot closer,” Souter said. “We are about 80 per cent of the way there.”
The recent food drive raised a record amount of donations for Community Care, which Souter said sparked some momentum for this year’s Christmas program.
“Starting with the food drive, and now this, we are gaining some ground,” Souter said.
Typically, the food bank does not see such large amounts of money in a single donation. Souter said it does happen occasionally, although donors usually want to remain anonymous. The bulk of donations come through small individual gifts to the food bank, she said.
Jennifer Kaufman said her family is involved in several local charities, and wanted to respond to the pressures Community Care is facing.
“It is our way of giving back to a community that has really been so good to us,” she said.