Food Cupboard

St. Mary's Food Cupboard was founded by Grace Hull in 1987 in memory of her late husband Frank with a donation of $10,000 which was to generate enough annual interest to keep the cupboard active. In the following eight years the Food Cupboard was available to the public all day throughout the work week. In those early days, the church secretary ran the Food Cupboard in her "spare time", and about $200 kept the shelves stocked for a couple of months.

In 1995 volunteers were organized and trained to work in the cupboard. The need for our services in the community started to increase and in 1996 we began to record the number of clients we serve each day; from that date to the end of 2002 we helped 103,798 people. The number of volunteers grew to 13 and the hours of volunteer time grew to 4,160 per year. In 2009, over 12,000 people in need were served. 

Costco has generously donated for over 15 years and continues to be our major contributor of a variety of food, mainly produce and baked goods which we pick up five days a week (rain or shine, snow or hail). Other generous donors are our parishioners, elementary and secondary schools, Heinz, Casino Windsor and various friends in the community. The baskets that you see the Wardens carry to the altar during the Offertory Hymn are filled with food donations brought in each Sunday by members of the congregation. If you wish to help in this way, items most needed are cereal, peanut butter, jam and canned meat or fish or you might wish to designate donations of cash through your envelope offerings.

And don't forget to bring in your Zehr's grocery tapes as an additional source of fundraising.

Food Cupboard hours are Monday, Wednesday and Friday 9:00 am until noon.