Soft launch for new Feeding Windsor-Essex initiative

Soft launch for new Feeding Windsor-Essex initiative. CTV Windsor’ Bob Bellacicco has details.

A new venture by Feeding Windsor-Essex is helping to tackle the issue of food insecurity in the downtown core.

A new centre has been opened at 495 Glengarry Ave., with a goal of feeding thousands of people who could use a bite to eat and a welcoming place to visit.

Up to 45,000 people from 1,200 households will be fed every year.

“You go five blocks, five blocks, five blocks, five blocks you’re right in ground zero so that’s the greatest place to have it.” explained Roger Fordham, executive director of Feeding Windsor-Essex.

The 3,500 square foot space became available and is hosting an after-school soup program, coffee house three days a week, a community meal on Saturdays and a pet food bank on Wednesdays.

The goal is to offer up to seven programs.

“There’s a lot of services in this community to help people, but you almost need an MBA to know where they all are and ‘How do I get there?’ and so on,” Fordham said.

The United Way will have an office on site and Matthew House will have staff available at the centre as well.

“We thought it would be a great opportunity for Matthew House to be able to provide support for refugee claimants,” he said.

Executive Director Mike Morency says Matthew House gets phone calls from refugee claimants downtown who need settlement support.

“One and a half day a week, possibly two half days a week, to be able to meet refugee claimants in the downtown core without them having to come out to either our office in Forest Glade or the west end,” Morency explained.

Fordham says the new centre will have a grow station for 450 plants and the plan is to teach visitors how to do the same for themselves.

“I want to demonstrate things about food security, a grow where you eat model is very important,” said Fordham who, at some point, will have staff training people on how to use grow bags for self-sustenance. “We want to create capacity in the community to access food, do it in a dignified way to help build people up.”

Last year, the Feeding Windsor-Essex location on Drouillard Road served over 125,000 meals across the region.

A soft opening for the new Feeding Windsor-Essex Centre for Food Security will be held next week.

With files from CTV News Windsor’s Melanie Kenter, AM800 News & The Kyle Horner Show