M’CHIGEENG—The Manitoulin Secondary School (MSS) Living Well Locker has received a significant donation thanks to the support of the business 3 Cows and a Cone and the generous Manitoulin community.
“At the end of November or beginning of December we reached out to the community advising the public we were going to be taking donations for the MSS Living Well Locker,” said Judith Wright of 3 Cows and a Cone. “In putting it on, the support from the community was fantastic.”
“We accepted donations for six weeks,” said Ms. Wright. “There was a fantastic outpouring of support from people in providing donations.”
“It has been a big help to the program,” said Sarah Aube, coordinator of the MSS Living Well Locker Program.
“We dropped off the donations at the school (on January 14) of items like non-perishable food goods, toiletries, hygiene products and school supplies,” said Ms. Wright. “Along with the items that had been donated, $375 in cash donations had been provided, and Phil Blake (owner of 3 Cows) bumped that up to $500.”
Ms. Aube explained that the Living Well Locker program “is a safe place for students if they need food such as fresh or frozen fruit, vegetables and other food items, personal hygiene and toiletry items they can access at the school.”
“It is very important, especially at this time of the year when students may not have a lot of access to all of this,” said Ms. Aube. She noted Noojmowin Teg donates single sized portions of chili to the school on a monthly basis, “where we can keep in the freezer and when a student wants lunch they can take out, heat up and have.”
Ms. Aube said with the Canada Post strike MSS was not able to send letters to the groups it normally requests donations of fresh fruit and vegetables from. This made the support from the community and 3 Cows even that more important this year.
