An Ontario single mom who couldn’t afford fresh food helping others with rising costs
Global News
An initiative that started to help family and neighbours in London, Ont., struggling with the cost of food during the pandemic is now helping ensure 76 families fridges are full.
An initiative that started to help out her family and neighbours in London, Ont., struggling with the cost of food during the pandemic is now helping ensure 76 families’ fridges are full.
Leah Dyck, 34, the founder of the VanDyck Foundation which runs Fresh Food Weekly, said she started the food box program in 2021 when the company she worked for went bankrupt six months into the pandemic.
Even before losing her job, she admits affording things like fresh produce and milk was difficult on a low salary and as a single mother living in public housing.
“I was working all the time, and I still wasn’t able to make ends meet, and living in public housing definitely made it so I wasn’t homeless, but I just didn’t have it in me to find another low-paying job,” Dyck said.
“When I lost my job, I already knew that people were having a hard time being able to afford food.”
Dyck took that unfortunate event as an opportunity to try and help not only herself but her neighbours as well.
She started the Fresh Food Weekly website and contacted local farmers and producers to see if they would be willing to donate extra produce that she would then distribute to people in need.
Dyck said it’s through the generosity of local farmers she was able to continue helping other low-income families, and then in 2022, she started fundraising to buy things like milk, meat, cheese and eggs as well.