With the rising costs of just about everything, many people are feeling the financial strain of feeding their families. Tammy Williams, the founder of A Hope for a Better Tomorrow, is striving to take some of the pressure off of those struggling from food insecurity by providing warm meals and other essentials to those in need.
Better Tomorrow currently serves around 125 Sunday meals to people in Schumacher, South Porcupine, and Porcupine. While South Porcupine does have a food bank, many people are unable to get there or face other barriers to access, which is why the organization does food bank and grocery runs to deliver food to those who need it. They have also partnered with the Cochrane District Social Services Administration Board (DSSAB) to provide bus tickets to people in need of transportation to food banks or grocery stores.
“Basically, if you identify a need, we will do our best to support you,” Williams says.
Williams started A Hope for a Better Tomorrow about six years ago out of her own home, before partnering up with the South Porcupine Pentecostal Church in December 2021 at the suggestion of her pastor.
“My whole basement was dedicated to this project and it had taken over, so it was time,” Williams says of the decision to move into a larger space. Since moving to the church, Better Tomorrow has been run by a team of three core members, Williams included, as well as numerous volunteers from the church and the community.
“It just kept growing and as my name got out there, more people were reaching out. So we moved everything over to the church. We were given an empty room to use to start, and we have now grown to the point where we now have an even bigger room and we've had to purchase freezers and so on and so forth,” she says.
Even their second, bigger room at the church is bursting with the amount of food donations they receive, a testament to the community’s support of the program but also to the needs of the community. One of the reasons Williams started Better Tomorrow, she says, was because of the lack of meal programs of its kind in the east end.
Another reason is that she was once in the same position as the people she is now working to help.
“I was that single mom that needed the extra bit of support. I had five kids, worked three jobs,” Williams says. Once her children were grown and she no longer needed help making ends meet, she decided to pay it forward by providing that support to others.
“We don’t discriminate here, there’s no judgment. If you identify as having a need, we support that need if we’re able because we understand the stigma that’s out there, and we understand how hard it is to ask for help and the judgment that goes with that. We don’t judge,” she says.
Williams is always looking to educate others, including her three grandchildren who she and her husband are raising. Delivering holiday meals to families in need has become a way for them to bond as a family.
“It just became a tradition to support, to educate. This is where people are sometimes and it teaches them compassion and empathy,” Williams says.
“We’re all just one step away from being homeless, especially today with the inflation, the rents. And it’s not getting any better, so you’re gonna see a lot more of it,” she says.
In addition to the regular meal program, Better Tomorrow also delivers meals to families during the first week of school, when many parents are feeling the financial strain after buying school supplies for the year. On the first Sunday after school starts, they deliver pizzas.
“Don’t worry about anything, just sit down and have a pizza, have some conversation, talk about the first week — little things like that to encourage family time and connection,” Williams says.
“I’m really big on that because there isn’t a lot of time if you’re working two or three jobs to support your family. There isn’t any time left,” she says.
The organization delivers meals on Christmas Eve, along with grocery boxes and a gift for everyone in the home. They also put together “Blessing Bags” containing socks, hats, gloves, scarves, face masks, hand and foot warmers, basic toiletries, and other goodies, all in a cinch sack that can be reused.
A Hope for a Better Tomorrow is always looking for volunteers to act as runners and delivery people, as well as help with food prep and packing. They also take food and monetary donations, as well as toys and other gifts for the Christmas season.
“This is my job,” Williams says. “I don’t get paid for it but I’m spending no less than 25 to 30 hours a week on this, and I love it. I love my people, I love the community and the agencies I work with. It’s my heart.”
