Meals on Wheels Sudbury receives $5K from local legion

Various legion branches of the Royal Canadian Legion are distributing funds from the 2021 Poppy Campaign.

Royal Canadian Legion Branch 76 said it was pleased to present a $5,000 cheque to Meals on Wheels Sudbury.

Officials with Meals on Wheels said the money will go a long way.

“So, $5,000 would certainly provide over a year's worth of meals to clients,” said Shannon Ketchabaw, the executive director of Meals on Wheels Sudbury.

"Monday to Friday, we provide them, and we do have frozen meals service that they can order on the weekend … So, they can have meals seven days a week and that certainly helps them to prevent (becoming) malnourished.”

Meals on Wheels serves more than 400 clients, and officials with the legion said they chose that organization because it helps not only seniors but also veterans.

“They were able to show us that they do assist veterans. In fact, they have 22 veterans on their list that they deliver food to regularly,” said Bernadette Lamirande, poppy chair with Royal Canadian Legion Branch 76.

“So, any organization that does support our veterans, even if they help the community at large, we are then able to assist.”

The legion said the donation wouldn’t have been possible without the help from the community during the poppy campaign.

“We couldn’t do it without them stopping, making a donation and picking up a poppy,” said Lamirande.

"People are really generous. Often they see us and they are already wearing a poppy and they stop and still put money in our little bank. And we have very generous sponsors that helped us out as well by giving us money directly."

More than $50,000 was raised for Branch 76 throughout the poppy campaign.

Officials with Royal Canadian Legion said each year roughly $20 million is raised nationally.