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A group of independently owned restaurants in Sudbury rallied together to give back to some of the community's most vulnerable.
Close to 200 boxes of food were delivered to the Sudbury Food Bank by Share Sudbury, a group of local dining options created five years ago as a way to promote local cuisine, along with Bella Vita Cucina, Hardrock 42 Gastropub, JD’s Southern Smokehouse, M.I.C. Canadian Eatery & Whisky Pub, Mr. Prime Rib, The Kouzzina, Ristorante Verdicchio, and Tony V's Pizza and Restaurant.
"Each of us, individually, work with our own food brokers and suppliers to bring food and product into our restaurant," said Leslie Moutstatos, owner of P&M's Kouzzina. "We put together an offer to Gordon Food Service and they came to the table with us and have produced this great opportunity for the food bank."
The group says its main focus is to give back to the community and there's no better time than now.
"In this situation where you know this is critical for our community, we have people that are going to be in more need than they typically are," said Chuck Barbeau, owner of Di Gusto. "So yeah, does it make us feel good as an organization? Yeah, it does, but at the same time it's sad to see that this thing is affecting people in such a negative way."
Sudbury Food Bank's Dan Xilon said the number of food bank visits have more than doubled during this pandemic, so he said donations like this really go a long way.
"It's going to feed hundreds and hundreds of people, because it's restaurant based it's going to go mainly to meal programs, that type of thing so it's going to serve hundreds of people so it's really a great opportunity and of course this is stuff you would purchase in a restaurant so it's all high-quality products," said Xilon.
Xilon said this donated food will be handed out right away.
"Like the money, it's coming in great but it's going to go out fast," said the food bank director.
Since 2014, Share Sudbury said it has donated $100,000 to local charities.
