“Just this year, with the support they provided us, we were able to support more than 1,250 individuals in the Orléans area, and almost half of those people are children."
Ottawa firefighters are accustomed to life-saving manoeuvres, but for the past 20 years, crews with District 7 have also been extending a lifeline to their local food cupboard.
Firefighters on Monday presented the Orléans-Cumberland Community Resource Centre with about $18,000 in food items along with a cheque for almost $14,000 in donations collected through their annual December food drive.
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Ottawa Fire Services Lt. Denis Charbonneau said the partnership began about 20 years ago “and it just grew and grew,” he said. “We’ve collected over a half-million dollars in food items and we’ve raised more than $60,000 (in cash donations) over the 20 years.”
Each year, Charbonneau rallies up about 60 members of District 7 to fan out across local grocery stores in a one-day blitz to collect non-perishable food items and cash donations for the OCCRC.
“We hold it every year around Christmas and the patrons are just so generous, the firefighters really love it because it puts a smile on their faces,” Charbonneau said. “And the food bank has been tremendous in talking about the impact this has had with the number of families in need. So that’s another thing that puts a smile on the firefighters’ faces.”
Those smiles have been extended to the entire staff and those who rely on the OCCRC, said executive director Luc Ouellette.
“We’ve had a very rich partnership with the firefighters for the past 20 years — I’ve been here for 16 of them — so I can certainly testify to the work the firefighters have done for the centre,” he said Monday.
“Just this year, with the support they provided us, we were able to support more than 1,250 individuals in the Orléans area, and almost half of those people are children.
“That’s not across the entire city, that’s only for part of Orléans and our east-end rural communities and villages. We’ve never seen numbers like that before,” Ouellette said.
“This is happening everywhere across the city and across Canada in terms of reliance on food banks. There is a much higher need with many children living in food insecurity, and this is something that has been happening steadily,” Ouellette said.
“Now, we see a direct correlation between inflation and the number of people coming to food banks. That’s been very concerning as far as where we go from here.”
ahelmer@postmedia.com
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