Special delivery
Local hospital gives back with surprise donation to food bank
The once bare shelves at the Truro Salvation Army are now restocked after a large donation was dropped off Wednesday morning.
A truck with more than 1,300 pounds of food was delivered to the Salvation Army as a surprise donation from the staff of the Colchester-east Hants Health Centre, who held an impromptu food drive after hearing about the food bank’s lack of emergency food.
“One of our employees saw the article in the paper about the supplies being low here at the Salvation Army, and contacted us to gather some food,” said Raj Makkar, manager of ambulatory care at the CEHCC.
“We sent out a call to our entire hospital staff to get behind this and actually just collected the food this morning. There were people from all departments of the hospital who brought in food to donate, which we loaded into a truck to bring it here. It was very much a group effort from the staff at the hospital.”
When the staff at the CEHCC saw the article about the Salvation Army’s food situation, they saw it as a chance to reach out and help.
“It was just something that was spur of the moment,” said Makkar.
“The hospital is all about helping the community as much as we can. We very much think of ourselves as part of the community. Seeing the article in the paper, we saw an opportunity to give back, so we sent out a call to our entire hospital staff to get behind this.”
The donation was definitely a surprise, as Makkar and fellow CEHCC co-worker Mike Turner were met with many hugs and praises as they dropped off the food.
“It’s overwhelmingly awesome,” said Major Bruce Jennings of the Truro Salvation Army.
“To get surprise donations like this, it brings us a lot of joy. We are really appreciative of the hos- pital for what they’ve done.”
The Salvation Army are always open to donations, as they help provide food for a number of families in need around the Truro area.
“When the food bank is low, we aren’t able to help the individuals who come in,” said Jennings.
“Whether it’s a holiday weekend or any other day of the week, donations allow us to service our clients in the proper manner. Otherwise, they can only get what we have on the shelves and sometimes that isn’t very much. A donation like this, surprise or not, is a big help.”
With the large donation from the hospital, the Salvation Army will be able to help those in need, but with between 80-100 families a month needing help from their food bank, a donation of this size will only last for a few weeks
“What we really need is continuous donations,” said Jennings.
“When we get big donations, it’s great and we are really appreciative, but if it doesn’t continue to come in after that, it depletes really quick. Really we need more donations on a regular basis.”