Taking a break from the unpacking and sorting of the large donation of food to the Faith Food Pantry in Chesterville, volunteers gathered to have a pictorial memory taken. From the left, front row: Everly Cross, Jenna Cross, Raymond Cross, Louise Moore. Back row: Isabelle Gillard, Carol Barkley, Savannah Gillard, Robert Forward, Louis Lannin, Earl Windsor, Cindy Barkley, Christine Cross-Barkley, Station 4 Fire Chief Mike Gruich, Judy Barkley, Miles Barkley.  Thompson Goddard Photo

CHESTERVILLE – On Wed., Dec. 27, church members and community volunteers gathered at Christ Church United in Chesterville to pack, sort and refill the shelves at the Faith Food Pantry located there.

As firefighters from North Dundas Fire Station #4 drove Santa and Mrs. Claus through the streets of Chesterville on Christmas Eve, 1,240 pounds of food and $500 in cash were received by firefighters.  Included in the total were donations collected at the Mike Dean Local Grocer store in Chesterville.

“I was overwhelmed by the generosity of the people of Chesterville,” said Station 4 Fire Chief Mike Gruich as church members and community volunteers unpacked, sorted and filled the food pantry shelves.

Christine Cross-Barkley from CCU expressed thanks to the firefighters for giving up part of their Christmas Eve to take Santa and Mrs. Claus on their tour of Chesterville as well as collecting, storing and delivering the donations. “This is a perfect example of Chesterville looking after our community,” she commented.

“We collected goods at the store front in Chesterville and our cashiers are the ones who promoted it very well by letting the community know this donation was local to just here in Chesterville via the church,” explained Gordon Dean.  He noted how two “heaping carts of groceries” were collected in a couple of days, before commenting how “it was a great success, and we are looking forward to doing the same next year!”

More information on the Faith Food Pantry can be found on the Christ Church United Facebook page.