After having to access social services in Cambridge years ago, a Cambridge man is giving back to the community that helped him when he had nowhere else to turn.
Jamie Colwell lived in community housing and had to access the food bank nearly 16 years ago. This weekend he is holding a food drive to raise donations and awareness for the Cambridge Food Bank.
“They don't get luxury items like peanut butter, nut free bars and fruit cups, those are things that just don't seem to come in as much as everything else,” said Colwell.
The food drive will take place this Saturday and Sunday in partnership with the Zehrs at 180 Holiday Inn Rd. Their goal is to purchase one skid of peanut free bars and one skid of fruit cups for the food banks school program.
This is the second drive Colwell has stepped up. The first time he had a target goal of 170 jars of peanut butter and ended up with over 700. Now, he looks to raise $5,400 to buy the school snacks for children in the community.
After being in the position of needing these services, Colwell wants to give back and help now that he is in a position to do so.
“I’m not affluent or rich so I can’t donate a lot of money, but what I can do is donate my time and help organize this initiative to support these services,” said Colwell.
Dianne McLeod is the executive director of the Cambridge Food Bank and said initiatives like Colwell's are a great boost to their programs.
With donations coming in at a slower pace, because of inflation and the rising cost of life, McLeod said they could use all the help they can get.
“We're seeing over 1,100 families a month at a time when our donors are also really feeling the pinch financially and not able to donate as much,” said McLeod. So our food donations in particular have been down pretty significantly and I'm sure that's because people are struggling to put food on their own table.”
Due to the fact that Colwell has had to access the food bank in the past, he lives by a quote from Princess Diana: “Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.”
Now that he is in a position to give back, he wants to help and remove any stereotypes of the type of people accessing these services.
“The stereotype is someone who is disenfranchised or homeless, this is not the case, I am living proof of this,” said Colwell. “I was living in a home, had a job, but I didn’t know where I’d get my next meal or how I’d pay rent. This could happen to anyone.”
He thinks there needs to be more compassion towards the less fortunate or those who are using the services.
“There are groups online, even in our own community that talk so much hate, specifically about people that are homeless or commit petty crimes,” said Colwell. “We need to look beyond that initial act and ask, how did these people get there?”
From the hate he is seeing online, Colwell wants to see more kindness from people. He wants to create a resource for people to make donations and a community of like-minded people who truly want to help.
In response to all of this, he has created a Facebook group called the Cambridge Food Drive Initiative. It’s a small group, only being created a few days ago in hopes of continuing fundraising beyond these food drives.
“People say we’re all in the same boat, I don’t think this is true. We are all in the same storm, but some are in yachts, some are on buoys and some are drowning,” said Colwell. “We need to look beyond ourselves and say, what can I do to help?”
Donations can be made to Cambridge Food Drive Initiative here or in person at the Zehrs at 180 Holiday Inn Dr. Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
