THUNDER BAY – The RFDA was thrilled to be the recipient of $5,000 worth of food after the eighth annual Leadership Thunder Bay Turkey Drive.
The annual turkey drive was started as a homegrown idea for a way for Leadership Thunder Bay to help support local families and has grown a lot over the years with this years drive bringing 100 meals for families in need.
“It's something that the community really needs and we have heard reports that the community is desperately in need of food and food scarcity,” said Mathew Villella past president of Leadership Thunder Bay.
“So we decided as a group that the best way to be community leaders is to give back to our community and that is exactly what we've done with our help with Shawn's NoFrills, we've been able to do that this year.”
The RFDA will be distributing the meals to its various food banks and feeding programs and Brendan Carlin, community services and sustainability manager, RFDA, said that the donation was amazing to receive especially as so many people in the community are struggling with rising food costs, not to mention the additional cost to be able to celebrate the holidays.
“It's massively important. You know, people celebrate whether they're the richest or or or struggling and we're all about making choices easier, whether it's the the spring or the summer or Christmas time and at Christmas you have lots of things that have demand on your attention and your finances, unfortunately,” said Carlin.
So, if we can provide people with a little extra flexibility through the help of Leadership Thunder Bay or other organizations, then yeah, it's great.”
Melissa Sgambelluri, member of the board of directors of Leadership Thunder Bay said that the drive was so successful due to the support received from the local organizations who partner with them.
“We've had a lot of corporate sponsorship throughout the community,” she said. “So big thank you to Jones Insurance, Copperfin Credit Union, Blue Harbor Financial, Shawn's NoFrills and also Nissan Motors.”
