South Etobicoke Community Comes Together

During these unprecedented times of economic distress, there is much to be said when the abundance of good deeds is more than a handful of donations.

“This is a very close knit community” said Major Sophie Gilbert, Corps Officer of The Salvation Army Lakeshore Community Church. “Early into the pandemic it became very clear that there would be more and more people needing a food bank- many for the first time.”

A community member extended a challenge over Facebook to the four areas that the Church serves- New Toronto, Mimico, Long Branch and Alderwood. The challenge was to see which of these four communities could raise the most food and/or monetary donations for The Salvation Army and in doing so, support their community.

Over the course of just a couple of weeks, $4,000 was raised, as well as hundreds of pounds of food.

The giving didn’t stop there. Two local restaurants were quick to lend a helping hand and have been supporting The Salvation Army continue to feed the community: 850 Degrees Pizzeria, located at 3455 Lakeshore Blvd West, just across the street from the church and Timothy’s Pub, located at 344 Brown’s Line.

Prior to COVID-19 closing down, Lakeshore Community Church was feeding 60 to 100 people on Wednesdays for lunch. Due to the circumstances, the Church has transformed the program into a “take-out” and 850 Degrees Pizza has been supplying individual boxed pizzas for 40 people every week. The restaurant also took the initiative to create a sign for their front window advising the community that they could make donations to The Salvation Army by leaving it with the owners, who would then pass it on to the Church. Over and above all that, the restaurant also donated food items for the food bank.

Timothy’s Pub has also been showing their unwavering support during the pandemic.

“They have been huge supporters of our location for over 20 years now- namely at Christmas and during the summer camping season” said Jennifer Hibbs, Youth Pastor at The Lakeshore Community Church. Jennifer also mentioned that in speaking with Tim (owner of Timothy’s Pub) about how The Salvation Army has continued to operate the food bank through COVID-19, he didn’t hesitate one bit to offer his full support to the Lakeshore

Community Church and those in need. The initiative that Tim conceived of involved him hand-picking an item off the menu, from which a dollar of that item would support The Salvation Army.

“Tim is a caring, community minded individual who loves supporting local initiatives. His hands-on approach has been both uplifting and incredibly helpful during this time of need,” Jennifer added.

Mallory Cochrane, Community and Family Services worker has said that “it is amazing how out of something so scary and so economically difficult, that great things are happening. We’ve been really blessed to be feeding our community!”