Cheerios recognizes Food Bank executive
Company shifts focus from Olympians to front-line heroes
Lori Mcritchie does not consider herself a hero.
But during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the executive director of the Airdrie Food Bank and her team have helped countless individuals and families in a time of need — which is a heroic effort worth recognizing, according to General Mills Canada.
Cheerios and its Canadian Olympic athlete partners — who would normally have been featured on boxes of the cereal ahead of the 2020 Summer Games — have shifted their focus and teamed up with Food Banks Canada.
The Airdrie Food Bank, which has seen a large increase in the number of individuals turning to its resources, is one of the recipients in this new program from Cheerios, which is donating $500,000 cash and $600,000 worth of food product from General Mills to Food Banks Canada.
And as a thank-you for their efforts during this global health crisis, Canada’s frontline food bank staff like Mcritchie will be featured on the front of a box of limited-edition Cheerios.
“We are pivoting our original plan from helping Canadians to cheer on our Olympic athletes, to those same Olympic athletes cheering on Canadians who are pushing themselves to help their communities in this time of tremendous need,” said Fawad Farrukh, business unit director of cereal at General Mills Canada.
The recognition is only possible because of the team at the Airdrie Food Bank, said Mcritchie.
“They’re amazing,” she said. “We have 10 staff and we do a lot of things in our community. We run school feeding programs; we do hampers for our community; we do a bread and extras program. We have a community kitchen and teach cooking classes. We have cooking classes for kids. … We are quite busy.”
The Airdrie Food Bank meets the needs of the population beyond the Calgary city limits and surrounding north Rocky View County area.
Mcritchie said the food bank’s work is diverse, but COVID -19 has forced staff members to re-tool their programming. The demand has increased as the pandemic impacted the economy.
“The first couple of weeks were just so busy,” Mcritchie said.
“And now our numbers have picked up and taken off. We’ve been trying to predict what will happen, but we are reassessing things every week to try and deliver programs in a different way, and a safe way people feel comfortable with.
“We are trying to meet the needs of our community in whatever way they arise.”
Five Olympic athletes will share the stories of these food bank workers on social media and will reveal the “Cheer For The Food Banks Frontline” box.
Mcritchie was paired up with swimming sensation Penny Oleksiak and the two had a conversation online.
“I got to find out about her and she found out about us,” Mcritchie said. “It’s been an amazing journey so far.
“I’m a huge supporter of food banks across the country ... The heroes are our on-the-ground people and volunteers and our small community operation that meets the needs locally. The work they do is worthy of being recognized as heroes ... It’s amazing. I’m not the hero in this story. It’s the community and our team and everyone who pitches in to make life a little better for the people who live next door.”