Deer Lake -
What started out as an online mission has taken on a life of its own in Deer Lake.
Project Feed Me is a nine-week program designed to collect food donations and spread the word by reaching out to as many participants as possible.
Melinda Boone, co-ordinator of Supported Employment for Deer Lake and Extended Regions (SEDLER) in Deer Lake, saw the project on a blog and the idea sparked an interest with her.
"What it is, is each week we decide on a food item and we send out an email to all participants. We're collecting food for the food bank. If you decide to sign up, then you're kind of responsible for getting three more people involved. It's like a pyramid scheme, but for the good. I just mentioned it to everybody I could think of, and then some of those people mentioned it to a bunch of people, so I think around Christmas time, there were probably about 20 people in Deer Lake involved," said Boone.
She then mentioned the idea to her sister in Nova Scotia, a friend in Baie Verte and her mother in Alberta. She said they got people involved in their areas as well. Boone said social networking sites such as Facebook allowed her to easily access people who showed interest, giving them the details of the program.
"(The project) consists of two food items a week. It usually comes to a couple bucks each, never more than $5. When you're going out and getting your groceries, you don't notice a couple of extra bucks," she said.
Boone also makes the food contributions more personal, contacting the local food bank and asking what items they need the most.
Although this project took place solely for the nine weeks leading up to Christmas, Boone said she and other SEDLER employees wanted to keep the giving going.
"After Christmas, we threw around the idea of doing it for the year. Why stop at Christmas? People are hungry all year. We decided we'll do it until Easter. We'll do it in blocks ... This time we're doing 13 weeks until Easter," she said.
Boone said the project hits a personal note for her and others at the SEDLER Green Depot.
"In this field that we work in, we see first hand people who need to use the food bank. That's what really got our interest in it. We know people who have to avail of these services. Some people shouldn't have to go hungry because they don't have that support or ability," she said.
Besides continuing the project, the recycling depot has set up an account for the food bank.
"There are some items that they need to buy like fresh items like eggs and butter.
If people want to recycle and don't want to wait for their money, they can just drop it off for the food bank," said Boone.
