Commuters across the Pontiac were called upon to support those in need on Thursday morning, thanks to the work of an army of 49 volunteers who dedicated the early hours of the day to raising money for Bouffe Pontiac.
Volunteers were set up at three different locations across the county – L’Isle-aux-Allumettes, Campbell’s Bay, and Shawville – stopping traffic to request donations for the Campbell’s Bay-based food bank.
Between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m., the effort raised $12,158 and 284 kilograms of non-perishable goods for the food bank’s Christmas basket program, which sends between 280 and 300 people home with fixings for a proper Christmas feast, turkey and all.
“Bouffe Pontiac is such an important organization in our community and this is a really fun way to support them,” said Serena Larivière, one of the volunteers collecting donations at the Campbell’s Bay stop. “The energy is awesome, and people are incredibly generous.”
Bouffe Pontiac director Kim Laroche said each year the non-profit hopes to raise $10,000 to support the Christmas baskets. The cost of turkeys and chickens alone comes in over $8,000.
“We weren’t expecting the amount to be this high this year because we heard regular donators saying, ‘I usually hand out $100 or $200 but this year it’s a little lower because I need it too,’ so I wasn’t expecting this amount,” she said.
“It shows again how a whole community, in just three hours, can help. It’s pretty generous.”
After several years of seeing increasing numbers of people use the food bank, the numbers seemed to stabilize in the 2024-2025 year, at an average of 691 people a month, which is about on par with the year prior.
“Every month is different, but we’re getting between 600 and 800 people a month,” Laroche said. “Some return regularly, others sign up and only come once.”
In the 2019-2020 period, the food bank fed between 400 and 500 people a month, and this number increased steadily throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Laroche said the newfound stability is a big relief, and will make it possible for her to be more forward-looking in her planning, something that has not been possible in recent years because the need for the food bank’s basic services has consistently been greater than she anticipated.
“When you see the numbers going high, you keep on thinking about the budget. You want to serve all the people, you don’t want to lower the amount of food in their basket, you don’t want to bust the budget, so you’re always thinking about it,” she said.
“Knowing that there’s this stability this year, you get to know ahead what you can play with, and then you can open up more projects.”
Laroche said she is looking forward to being able to expand into other ways to serve those struggling with food insecurity in the community, including through Bouffe’s new school lunch program, which sent out a first round of 175 meals to a handful of elementary schools in September.
She is also looking at establishing a transportation program to help deliver food to people who might not be able to get themselves to the food bank.
“Knowing that it’s more stabilized, it’s also leaving me the time and opportunity to go find more funding [for other projects].”
