A moment early on after Lyndsay Mollins Koene moved to town over three decades ago has stuck with her.
She and her partner had returned home from grocery shopping and a young boy appeared in their kitchen.
"We had the door open unloading groceries and he had in his arms a bag of oranges that we’d just purchased from the store and he was taking them. We made eye contact and we let him go. We just said, go enjoy those oranges and his family needed those. It struck me at that point that hunger is everywhere and the need for food is everywhere,” she recalled, adding the cost of food is still out of reach for some families.
Recently, Mollins Koene joined the team of volunteers at the South Porcupine Food Bank.
“It’s a privilege to sit with board members from the area and from outside the area that care about people having enough to eat. It’s a privilege,” she said.
In February, when Mollins Koene joined the board of directors, where she's serving as the vice president, there was a jump in usage at the food bank.
That month, the organization served 387 clients — more than one-third of whom are children. It marked a 133 per cent increase compared to February 2022.
For Mollins Koene, the volunteer work ties in well with the food sovereignty and food security work she's been focused on for decades.
In 1993 she journeyed north from southern Ontario to volunteer with the Mennonite Central Committee. The volunteer work eventually led to a position with the organization, which she recently left to explore other opportunities.
“My work for the last 30 years has taken me into communities where I’ve witnessed both the cost of food, the inaccessibility of food and the result of that,” she said.
In her early days of working with the Mennonite Central Committee, she remembers helping people access the food bank's services.
“We would load up a van of people needing to go to the food bank … and off we’d go and people would gather their food and we would drop people off at their homes because the bus wasn’t always on schedule and so,” she said.
Mollins Koene always gives back when she can.
“I don’t look at it as so much helping people as doing what any other human would do. If I can step in and provide a meal for someone then that’s what I should do if I’m able,” she said.
For people looking to donate to the food bank, the most requested items are pasta, pasta sauce, canned fruit, canned vegetables, canned beans and granola bars. The organization also accepts cash donations to help buy fresh produce and milk, as well help buy the food staples needed to fill the shelves.
Donations can be dropped off Tuesday from 1-3 p.m. and Saturdays from 9-11 a.m. Financial donations can be mailed to 97 Bloor Ave., South Porcupine, or made online through Canada Helps.
Do you know someone who's making a positive impact in the community? Send your ideas for who our next Helper feature should be to [email protected].
