Woodstock Sentinel-Review
© Copyright 2006, Sun Media Corporation
Food for Friends goes countywide
Friday, December 15, 2006
BY BRUCE URQUHART, STAFF WRITER
Dateline: Woodstock
Its ongoing Woodstock success has inspired Operation Sharing to make the
innovative Food for Friends program a truly countywide endeavour.
Starting in January, Operation Sharing plans to launch an extensive
fundraising campaign through Oxford's 10 participating grocery stores,
asking shoppers for the established 25-cent donation to support the
expanded Food for Friends card program.
"It's really exciting that Food for Friends is starting to catch on,"
Operation Sharing president Greg Visser said. "This is something we can
now say is truly countywide and a great benefit to everyone."
While the actual food cards won't be distributed to eligible county
families until enough money is raised to fully support the program,
Chaplain Steve Giuliano, Operation Sharing's program co-ordinator,
predicted the expanded Food for Friends would be ready by April.
"This is really exciting for us," Giuliano said. "Operation Sharing has
always worked to serve the impoverished of Oxford County, and this is a
wonderful way to help support the impoverished countywide.
"No one who qualified will go without a card."
While the Woodstock program needed an initial $60,000 to begin its card
distribution, Giuliano said the organization wouldn't need as much
revenue to begin Food for Friends in Oxford's smaller communities.
Because Ingersoll has about one-quarter of the clients served in
Woodstock, for example, Food for Friends would only require about
$15,000 in start-up funding.
"As we did in Woodstock, we waited for a period of time to elapse to
generate the money to fund the cards," Giuliano said.
Giuliano applauded the grocery stores that committed to the expanded
program, describing them as critical to the ultimate success of Food for
Friends. These participating stores — Tillsonburg's Zehrs and Sobeys
locations, Ingersoll's Hurley Independent Grocer and Foodland stores,
Tavistock's Valu-Mart, and Embro's Matheson's Food Market IFT — will be
receiving information packages for its employees in the coming weeks to
help with the fundraising preparations.
"It took less than five minutes for these grocery store owners to see
our success and sign up for the program," Visser said. "They really have
to be commended."
The county's two remaining grocery stores, Norwich's Foodland and
Tillsonburg's A&P location, have also expressed interest in the program
but have requested additional information. These two stores "were
certainly impressed to hear the presentation of what we're doing,"
Giuliano said.
Dale Hurley, the owner of Hurley's Independent Grocer, said Food for
Friends "sounded like a great program." While he recognized the program
would take a few months to become fully operational, he said Food for
Friends was "a much better way" to help the impoverished.
"It's easier for the customer and it's easier for the store," he said.
Operation Sharing will be providing the initial advertising for the
expanded campaign, as well as the needed administrative expertise for
the initial stages of the program. The organization is hoping to recruit
some volunteers in the other Oxford communities to help administer the
local programs, particularly in distributing the cards when they become
available.
While Operation Sharing has been supplying its one-use Food for Friends
cards to a few eligible families outside of Woodstock's borders, the
expanded program will allow the organization's clients to shop much
closer to their own communities. With much of Oxford being rural, and
transportation being a potential issue, Giuliano said this would prove a
real benefit to some of its county clients.
The key to the expanded Oxford program, Giuliano said, was the pilot
project's continuing success in Woodstock. Since the program was
formally launched, Operation Sharing has continued to raise the money
needed to support Food for Friends through the at-the-till donations.
While the program costs between $80,000 and $100,000 a year to operate
in Woodstock, Operation Sharing ensures that over 90 per cent of the
monies raised goes directly on the Food for Friends cards. Operation
Sharing also intends to implement a tracking process to prevent multiple
cards from being mistakenly issued to recipients.
"We're very enthusiastic," the chaplain said. "We're very grateful to
the grocery stores that have joined us throughout the county, and we
hope the communities realize this is a more dignified way to help the
impoverished."
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