Big food donation on its way to Cape Breton residents in need
More than 18,000 kilograms of food will be delivered throughout Cape Breton in the coming weeks.
The Cape Breton chapter of Khalsa Aid Canada requested the food donation to help people who have struggled during the pandemic.
The non-profit humanitarian organization sent food packs from its designated essential service distribution centre in Toronto and they arrived Wednesday. Gunny Brar, head of the Cape Breton chapter, said the donation is the "kind of help we needed here."
"We have a huge population of international students and we have a huge unemployment rate as well," he said. "We have more of a vulnerable population than a lot of other cities in Canada."
Brar said the organization donated food packs for both the international student population and anybody from Cape Breton that may be in need of a meal.
A Google form is available through the organization's social media sites and once it's filled out, the food pack is delivered for free.
Some of the food packs include lentils and flour that are typical of South Asian cuisine, while others come with pastas and soup that are more typical of Western European cuisine.
"We read this everywhere, we're all in this together," said Brar. "This is the kind of time where we all need to join our hands and pull up our resources and help each other."
Brar said when it came time to find volunteers, there was an overwhelmingly positive response.
He said there were 30 people volunteering for the morning shift to unload the truck and begin sorting the food packs, and another 20 volunteered for the afternoon shift.
Amandeep Bhatia, a former international student at Cape Breton University, has been working from home during the pandemic and took the day off Wednesday so he could help.
"This is my home so anything to help my family members, all the Capers — I think of them as my family members, so anything to help them," said Bhatia.
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