May Newsletter

May 2009

Hungry Bowls

The 3rd Annual Hungry Bowls fundraiser proved to be another success this year, selling 63 tickets and raising $2,205 to help us keep the shelves at the Nelson Food Cupboard well-stocked. Thank you to everyone who attended, to all of the great volunteers who made the event run smoothly, to the Hume Hotel for donating the room, to the KSA students who made the bowls and to the following businesses for donating food and/or services:

All Season’s
Alligator Pie Catering
Ariah’s Edible Creations
Au Soleil Levant
Baba’s Indian Cuisine
BiBO
Busaba Thai Café
Café KAS
Endless Harvest
Epiphany Cakes
Fisherman’s Market
Francyne’s Cuisine
Full Circle Café
Georama Growers
Grounded Organic Coffee House
Hall Printing
KC Restaurant
Kootenay Bakery Café Cooperative
Kootenay Country Store Cooperative
Kootenay Kitchen Chicks Catering Co.
Kootenay School of the Arts
Little Miss Gelato
Max & Irma’s
North Shore Naturals
The Preserved Seed
Save On Foods
Sequoia Design
The Vienna Café
Two Hills Tea
Uphill Bakery

Spring Whole Grains for Health Campaign Results

Throughout the spring, the Nelson Food Cupboard Society was encouraging till donations at the Kootenay Coop and Save On Foods for our Whole Grains for Health Campaign in conjunction with National Nutrition Month in March.  At the Kootenay Coop, $205.65 was raised, which enabled us to buy 7 bags of rice (brown and white) during their case lot sale. At Save On Foods, $358.00 was donated throughout March and April, which will be used to buy cous cous, barley, oats and lentils with our next food order. Thank you to everyone who donated to us through the tills at these two stores to help us continue to buy whole grains for our customers.

Curves Food Drive

Curves held their annual food drive once again in March. Half of what they raised was donated to the Nelson Food Cupboard, while the other half was given to St. Savior’s Food Bank. Over $1100 worth of high quality food, along with a monetary donation of $190.00, were donated to the Nelson Food Cupboard. We are very grateful for their generosity and thank Curves for continuing to support us in this way each year.

Plant a Row – Grow a Row

The Nelson Food Cupboard’s Grow a Row program will officially be launched on Saturday May 9th at the Nelson Garden Festival. Come and look for our booth where we will be handing out packets of bean seeds along with information about our program. You can register your garden with us that day, or any other time by calling (354-1633) or dropping by the Food Cupboard during our operating hours (M/W 9-12 and Th 12-2pm).

We have generously been given permission to use the four garden plots outside of the Nelson and District Community Complex to grow food for our customers. Jenny has been busy preparing the beds and has started to plant all kinds of seeds. Any seed donations are greatly appreciated. Jenny’s special requests are: leeks, arugula, spinach, mustard greens, summer turnips, green onions, chives, thyme, parsley and fennel.

5 a Day Fruit and Vegetables Program

The local organic root crops we buy from Canyon City Farm every 2 weeks have come to an end for this year. We are now starting to receive weekly boxes of fresh organic spinach, kale and other greens thanks to a CSA share purchased from Soil Matters Farm in Castlegar. Funding to buy vegetables from both of these local farms was made possible thanks to a grant from MAZON Canada (http://www.mazoncanada.ca).

THANK YOU to everyone who generously donates time, money and food to the Nelson Food Cupboard!