Free fruit and vegetables distributedto local seniors

By Jenn Watt

One hundred seniors in HaliburtonCounty are receiving Good Food Boxes filled with fresh produce oncea month funded by the New Horizons for Seniors Program and organizedby the Rotary Club of Haliburton.

The initiative which will provide thefruit and vegetables to the seniors for free until the end of Juneis made possible with $5500 that came to the club through the UnitedWay for the City of Kawartha Lakes which administers the funding.

Rotarian Brian Nash said the connectionwas made when Penny Barton Dyke executive director of the CKL UnitedWay spoke to the local club in the winter about food security.

“We stayed in touch and then thisfunding came through and they contacted us and said ‘if we got yousome money could you increase the saturation of the Good Food Boxinto that age group?’ And so we said ‘Sure. Absolutely’”said Nash. On Thursday May 21 Haliburton’s Rotarians were out inforce filling up more than 300 bags with apples romaine lettucecucumbers spinach baby carrots potatoes and broccoli.

They set up long tables in the parkinglot of the Haliburton arena allowing for physical distancingprotocols to be observed. The bags of fruit and veggies were thenloaded into vehicles bound for Cardiff Gooderham WilberforceMinden Haliburton Stanhope Dorset Kinmount and West Guilford.

The seniors funding provides for 100bags sent out for free. The other 210 bags were paid for by theprogram’s customers who pay $15 each.

Nash said he consulted with Kate Hallfrom the Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit aboutthe best way to reach the most seniors who could use a free Good FoodBox and she suggested going through the corporations that overseehousing for low-income seniors. The managers of those buildings putthe word out to their tenants.

“We haven’t delivered therebefore” Nash said. “… It’s our hope that we’ll continuewith a number of recipients at the housing corporations [who] willcontinue to get it at a cost of $15. Of course it’s fabulousvalue.”

The Good Food Box is available foranyone interested in receiving it. It must be ordered ahead of time.

Find more details athttps://portal.clubrunner.ca/201 or call Brian Nash at 705-455-9388.