In the lobby of North Toronto arena, Sarah holds the flyer for Sarah’s Food drive
It’s that time of year again when thoughts of other people’s hunger are first and foremost in Sarah’s mind.
Sarah is 10 years old (as of a week or so ago) and is in the midst of her 5th annual Food drive to benefit the Daily Bread Food Bank. She started in Grade 1 when during a family dinner table conversation she was shocked to find out that there were people within a 5 minute drive who were hungry. She vowed to help them and Sarah’s Food Drive was born.
Her parents Lynda and Mark are responsible for some of the grunt work like driving back and forth with loads to the Food Bank and getting posters printed but the majority of the work an initiative comes from Sarah herself.
Along the way, sister and sidekick Claire who is now 6 years old has been able to help more in Sarah’s efforts. “I put up posters with my Mom and my sister. I help bring food to the Food Bank. I go door to door on m y street with my sister and put flyers in the mailboxes.”
When asked why this was important, Claire said: “If nobody does a food drive then the poor people won’t get any food and they will die.”
It’s so interesting to me when young people are so easily able to “connect the dots.”
Sarah told me her goal was 12,000 pounds of food this year. An ambitious goal to say the least but my money is on this very determined young lady with a huge heart. She has collected in total 7,500 lbs over the years with a total of over 6,000 lbs in last year’s drive. She has some pretty amazing supporters including Tremblett’s Valu-Mart on Bayview Ave and Eric Anweiler, Manager of the North Toronto arena who passed this message along to all of his hockey buddies and has put a bin in the lobby of the rink for people to be able to drop off their non-perishable food items. Same goes for the support of Sarah and Claire’s home club, the North Toronto Skating Club.
If you want more information or would like to make a donation, visit Sarah’s website:
Go Sarah!