As a local news team, we are on the frontlines reporting on the stories that matter most to our community. Those stories, unfortunately, include many issues that are complicated and difficult to solve.
But we want to take action whenever we can.
With our mission of strengthening the community guiding us, we are thrilled to announce a new program that we hope will make a positive impact in Cambridge.
In partnership with local businesses, our Random Acts of Kindness: CambridgeToday Cares program aims to work with local non-profit organizations through donations to support their programming and promotions of their services, which are being accessed by an increasing number of our fellow neighbours.
Food insecurity in particular is an ongoing concern for many people in Cambridge. The pandemic has only heightened the prevalence of this issue.
For our first Random Acts of Kindness: CambridgeToday Cares initiative, with support from local grocery store Farm Boy, we will be donating 25 turkeys to the Cambridge Self-Help Food Bank to help provide holiday dinners for local individuals and families this Thanksgiving.
Food bank executive director Dianne McLeod said the donation kicks off the three-month "season of giving" that helps fill the pantry at the Ainslie Street operation until the next big food driving in the spring.
The turkeys will be added to the protein options users can choose from in the emergency food hamper program that serves about 1,600 families a month.
"Every donation helps," McLeod says of the fresh food the food bank is increasingly seeing coming into the pantry. "When you put it all together, it feeds a lot of people."
She says the food bank is putting fresh food front and centre over the next few months to encourage more donations of meat, eggs, cheese, bread and vegetables.
Non-perishable food items alone can't meet daily nutritional requirements, she says.
Food procurement manager for the food bank Brandee Foulds says this is the time of year she and others at the food bank look forward too all year, when generous business owners organize food drives and people of Cambridge step up to donate food from their gardens and more.
She likens it to the culmination of a year of effort artisans and craftpeople put into their work in order to sell it during the holiday season.
"This is our Fair November," she says.
We hope this program inspires our community to make a big difference - one small random act of kindness at a time.
