Food bank event stirs memories of childhood
‘I still think of the cans of corn on our laundry room floor’
WATERLOO — Retired physician Carolyn Campbell holds a tender place in her heart for food banks — which is why she was an eager participant at Sunday’s Fitness Feeds The Community event.
The inaugural event was held at the St. David Catholic Secondary School sports field where various fitness- and sports-related organizations hosted challenges.
Participants donated either money or food items to support the Waterloo Region Food Bank and for Campbell, this was a special afternoon, one that took her back to her childhood.
“In Agincourt in the ’60s and ’70s there was no food bank,” said Campbell. “My mom and dad started one in their basement.”
She has memories of the cans of food on the laundry room floor and strangers knocking on the front door hoping to receive help.
While her parents rallied family and friends, particularly through their United Church congregation and Kinsmen Club, they ran this ad hoc food bank while at the same time lobbying the municipal government for funds to establish a more permanent solution.
From her parents’ tireless advocacy arose Agincourt Community Services. While her father Ken died a few years ago, her mom Jean, only recently stepped down from volunteer work.
“I grew up with that attitude,” she said. “I still think of the cans of corn on our laundry room floor.”
As Campbell points out, the couple didn’t have a lot of money when she was growing up so they gave their time — but in a big way. And it's this sort of homegrown influence that Campbell has passed on to her own children.
On Sunday, she was there to support the new event and support the food bank.
The idea for Fitness Feeds the Community evolved from a prize Richard Hepditch bid on and won at a fundraising dinner.
Hepditch, chief of Waterloo Fire Services, said when he won the prize — a three-hour use of the high school’s sports field — he was thinking of having a fun day on the fields with his two kids.
But that didn’t seem to be enough and so he reached out to Dave Edgeworth of Depth, a fitness and rehab facility in Waterloo.
Together, they brainstormed and came up with the idea of holding Fitness Feeds the Community, inviting other sportsrelated organizations to join in.
“We worked together, collectively reaching out to different vendors,” said Edgeworth. “We wanted to do something to give back to the community.”
Wendi Campbell, the food bank’s CEO, said events such as Sunday’s are critical to the food bank, bringing in food and money as well as open conversations about hunger in the community.
“These third party events are really important to what we do,” she said, noting 50 per cent of the food and money raised comes from such events.
“There are over 100 community groups that regularly hold food drives,” she said, adding September is a tough time of the year for the organization, following a summer when supplies tend to dwindle.
“We need to replenish our stock,” she said. “Hunger does exist in this community.”
Hepditch said this new event fits with the Fire to Food Bank program started three years ago by fire departments in Waterloo Region.
A similar program was started two years ago by Waterloo Regional police.
In both programs, the public can bring donations to the stations where donation boxes are set up.
The wood was donated by Home Hardware and the boxes were constructed by building trades students at Conestoga College.
Hepditch said the fire department’s program makes sense given hunger affects families 365 days a year and firehalls are open for business 365 days a year.
In Waterloo Region, one in 20 households need support from the food bank.