Local businesses come to the aid of Lachine food bank
A Lachine food bank that was forced to scrap its truck after a mishap on westbound Highway 40 last month is giving thanks to three Montreal companies.
The Extended Hands Foodbank/Organisation caritative mains tendues is now able to pick up small food donations thanks to the donation of a Ford Econoline Van it received last week from Ryder Truck Rental Canada Ltd. and the Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd.
“We were so glad we were able to help,” said Andrew Fairlie, a Pointe Claire-based director of supply chain operations for Ryder.
Fairlie said he and a company official Imperial Tobacco, a major Ryder customer, both read a January 22 article in the West Island Gazette that spurred them into action.
The story outlined how the food bank was looking for a used 18-foot cube van to replace the cube van that it had been forced to scrap after it lost its rear wheels and, ended up on the highway shoulder with irreparable damage.
Fairlie said they decided to split 50-50, the cost of donating a used Ryder van to the food bank. It helped, he added, that Ryder was in the process of changing some of its fleet.
On Tuesday, Extended Hands coordinator Tara Lee Gooding said she and other members of her team are grateful for the donation, which will make it easier for the food bank to continue to carry out its mission — providing about 100 food baskets that feed between 300 and 500 people each week.
“It’s a blessing,” said Gooding.
However, the food bank is still looking for a 18-foot cube van to pick up the large food donations it receives every week from the city’s largest food bank, Moisson Montreal, the Salvation Army and Gaétan Bono Fruits et Légumes Inc. at Montreal’s Marché Centrale.
Gooding said food donations from these sources come on pallets that cannot fit into the van.
At the moment, Penske Truck Rental, another Montreal company that has stepped forward, she said, is loaning the food bank a cube van two days a week so that it can collect the four to eight pallets it receives each week from these donors.
Article Credit: JOHN MAHONEY, MONTREAL GAZETTE
Video Credit: CBC MONTREAL
Updated: FEBRUARY 12, 2013