Year End Working Group highlights Part 1
Here's a bit in their own words from their year end report:
This budget year saw big changes for FNB Hamilton. In October of 2014 we moved from a household kitchen, doing one serve every other month, to a large industrial kitchen at the YWCA where we have organized two serves (on the same day) a week. This effort has required countless hours of work from many dedicated volunteers. Through this increased capacity we have managed to feed between 75 to 150 people each serve.
The food that we cook with comes from several vendors at the Hamilton farmers market, who were more than happy to see the food they would have otherwise had to throw away go to good use. This has led us to identify, from our point of view, one of the larger impediments to food recuperation; logistics. Many vendors have repeatedly told us that for years they haven’t had anywhere to easily donate their excess produce in a consistent manner, with FNB’s weekly pickups they now have a reliable and consistent place to utilize that extra produce.
FNB has been able to foster relationships between groups of people that would not normally interact with one another. During our time in the kitchen and at serves the women living in at the YWCA, McMaster students, people living downtown, local community organizers, and people from various socio- economic backgrounds have found space to share their stories and experiences. This has allowed stronger social ties to form between these various groups and for many interesting discussions to be had.