Feeding Windsor opens three new programs

By Kaitlynn Kenney

People who are struggling and need help will soon be able to access more services at New Song Church.

 A food club will be opening at 999 Drouillard Rd. People can get items that would not be available at a food bank, but will be available to members for a subsidized price. They are also opening a pet food bank at the same location.

Pastor Kevin Rogers of New Song, said he has noticed more people are seeking help around the Windsor area.

“If you go to a food bank, you’ll see that the numbers are growing,” said Rogers.

Rogers said Feeding Windsor has three streams, the first one being the other churches also partnering to feed Windsor to provide services every week. Those include Throne of Grace, located at 405 Victoria Ave. and Ambassador Baptist at 3285 Manchester Rd. New Song also does weekly meals: Tuesday to Friday breakfast and Saturday night supper.

“All of those are free meals,” said Rogers. “We prepare the food in our kitchen here and deliver it to them (churches), and basically it’s a project of that church or a project of our church. We put the crew of people together to serve the food, but more to create an environment of hospitality.”

Rogers said the second stream is lunch club, the third is food club and it is the strategy of Feeding Windsor to go where the people are.

“The goal of lunch club and food club is to empower people in poverty,” said Rogers.

In May, Feeding Windsor opened a Lunch Club program at 920 Ouellette for people in the 400 building. Now, they are also opening a Lunch Club at 2455 Rivard, another low-income building.

Rodger Fordham, co-ordinator of Feeding Windsor, said the programs help build community and prevent social isolation.

“It allows people to participate in food security,” said Fordham.

“At food club, people can buy a membership, for a single person it’ll be 25 dollars and they can get 50 dollars worth of trade dollars. They’ll be able to shop in that store and buy the things that they want and need.”

Fordham said everything they do is with the support of the community and they hope to expand again in the spring to another Windsor Essex Community Housing Corporation  building.

Both stores will be opening on Nov. 1.