Leslieville resident’s Share What You Can Food Drive helps Nourish East End during the holiday season

By ISABELLE FERNANDES

Local realtor and Leslieville resident Shawna Fletcher is co-ordinating the Share What You Can Food Drive on behalf of the Nourish East End Food Bank for fifth year in a row this holiday season.

Fletcher was inspired to start the food drive in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19  pandemic’s restriction of resources for those in need. 

She did this by creating and printing flyers, delivering them to each house on a number of local streets; then going back to collect donations off those porches and delivering them to Glen Rhodes United Church (East End United Regional Ministry) on Gerrard Street East, where the Nourish East End Food Bank operates.

This year, Fletcher purchased 1,000 paper bags with the flyers stapled to them – an idea by her friend Whitney Taylor- and hand delivered them all and collected seven SUV loads (hundreds of bags of donations) for the food bank.

For next year’s Share What You Can Food Drive, Fletcher said she’ll be implementing reusable donation bags, graciously provided by Ryan Galloway, an associate resource manager, at the Nourish East End Food Bank.

Fletcher said the food drive, which is “right in time for the season of giving, but before the snow”, has been a way to give back to her East Toronto community while also having fun with her friend Taylor.

Taylor said Fletcher is an “amazing woman whose story does not only make you feel a warm and fuzzy, but renews your faith in mankind and makes you realize one ordinary person can make a big difference.”

For more information on the Share What You Can Food Drive, please contact Shawna at brokershawna@gmail.com

For more information on the Nourish East End Food Bank, please go to https://nourisheastend.ca/