With food insecurity impacting so many in the community, the UHC - Hub of Opportunities and Caesar Windsor Cares have partnered together to help those struggling.
On Friday they launched a mobile food pantry, made possible through a donation of just over $8000 from Caesars, which will go into five high poverty areas within Windsor-Essex to distribute veggie hampers to those experiencing hardship.
Officials say the mobile pantry will head into neighbourhoods every Saturday to distribute about 420 bags full of fresh, healthy produce per day throughout July and August.
June Muir, UHC Hub CEO, says the idea came about due to the overwhelming need in the community.
She says right now they're feeding about 250 people a day between the UHC - Hub of Opportunities and their Adie Knox location.
"Sometimes I'm told it goes as high as 278 hampers a day, so that's a lot of food that's going out of UHC. And then of course we're the hub for 15 food banks and they're busy as well. We know the need is there, we know the cost of living has increased so it's not shocking that food banks are needed."
Muir says thanks to partnerships like this they can continue to identify the gaps in the community and put initiatives in place to create equal opportunities for every individual to thrive in the face of adversity, because everyone is feeling the squeeze financially.
"We're not expecting that increase to go down, and we're not expecting food bank usage to go down. We expect it to continue to increase because I know when I go the grocery store how much it costs, and I know what it costs to fill my tank to fill my tank with gas. I know what it costs to pay your hydro bills, with all the expenses that families are facing today they need help, so we're here to help.")
Susanne Tomkins, with Caesars Windsor, says they're delighted to partner with UHC on this program and their employees are proud to be a part of it. Many of them are passionate about giving time, money, and skills to address the issues facing our community. It is part of our culture and how we live our mission to create the extraordinary."
"Our employees are passionate about this community, they give their time and their money, and they really like to give back. So to partner with the Unemployed Help Centre and have our employees be part of this donation is just a perfect combination."
The Caesar Windsor Cares Mobile Food Pantry will help 5000 low-income individuals and their families have access to healthy produce, which gives them an opportunity to create nutritional meals.
The produce being distributed is rescued locally from greenhouse growers and farmers that would have otherwise gone to waste.
(Taken by AM800's Aaron Mahoney)