Leamington Regional Food Hub brings dream to reality

By Mark Ribble

LEAMINGTON — Dozens of guests gathered at the new Leamington Regional Food Hub on Talbot Street West last Thursday, August 12 for the grand opening of the facility.

Although they’ve been producing the ‘Leamington Veggie Box’ since May, the event gave local dignitaries and donors a glimpse into how things are done.

A short tour of the facility showed the volunteers working at packing fresh vegetables into boxes for shipment to food banks across Ontario.

After the tour, June Muir, CEO of the Unemployed Help Centre (UHC) Hub of Opportunities, took to the stage with several dignitaries to explain what the new hub will mean to hungry people throughout the province.

She was quick to credit Vern Toews, who came up with the idea of the food hub and was there to see it through.

Vern Toews speaks to the guests at the opening.

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‘Papa Vern’ has been instrumental in getting the hub up and running, according to Muir.

Vern Toews’ vision of a local hub that rescues produce from local farms and turns it into food for those in need has now come to fruition as the Leamington Regional Food Hub.

Toews told about going to a recent powwow out west where the hub had sent 1,300 veggie boxes just days before. The boxes impacted about 9,000 Indigenous people in need.

His reception there was emotional and grateful and he says he met a lot of people who were happy to receive the fresh Leamington vegetables.

“We can play a small part in reconciliation with our brothers and sisters up north,” he said.

The site was offered to the group by Sterling Group. They offered the 16,000 square foot warehouse on a 12-year lease for $1.

Toews said they were able to refurbish the warehouse space to their needs and install the necessary machinery to get them up and running.

The site is currently able to produce about 13 semi-loads of vegetables per month and they’ve recently been able to speed up production by three days.

Bins of rescued peppers sit near the packaging line at the Leamington Regional Food Hub on Thursday, August 12.

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The UHC Hub of Opportunities is no stranger to distributing food to those in need in this area. They are the hub for the Windsor Essex Food Bank Association, of which there are 15 members.

Food donated by over 80 local farms is taken in, graded, sorted and packaged up at the new facility. They also have a dicing line and freezer to produce packaged frozen vegetables in the very near future.

Irek Kuzmierczyk, Member of Parliament for Windsor-Tecumseh, said it best when he said, “It really does take a village.”

Kuzmierczyk was quick to acknowledge Muir and her staff for the great work they do on a daily basis and he was amazed at how the Leamington Food Hub came together.

“We are simply blown away by the scale and quality of work carried out by the Unemployed Help Centre,” he said.”

The packaging line is seen in action.

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He then made a funding announcement, bringing more good new to the hub.

“Unemployed Help Centre will be the recipient of $162,240 from the Federal Government to retrofit and purchase new pieces of equipment,” he said.

Local MP Dave Epp, from Chatham-Kent-Leamington, told an emotional story of his grandparents, who fled southern Ukraine to Canada and started a farm on Mersea Rd. 1 so many years ago. Unfortunately, his great-grandparents were to join them, but did not escape and starved to death in the Ukraine.

“This is personal for me,” he said. “No one should go hungry in this country, this region or this town.”

Leamington Mayor Hilda MacDonald, Hub of Opportunities Director Dave Crosswell, Essex County Warden Gary McNamara, Vern Toews and MP Chatham-Kent-Leamington Dave Epp examine the production line at Leamington Regional Food Hub.

Leamington Mayor Hilda MacDonald was also among the speakers and she was happy to be a part of the process.

“This is about knowing that when you have an abundance, you need to share with others less fortunate,” she said. “To be a part of this is truly heart-warming.”

About 91 volunteers were gathered in a very short three months and Dave Crosswell, from the Hub of Opportunities, gave lots of credit to Vern Toews. “Vern proved that dreams do come true,” he said.

According to Muir, the Leamington Regional Food Hub will recover four million pounds of food each year.

“It takes a team,” she added. “Our staff — Vern — everyone has contributed to this.”