Local Creamery Fills the Truck With Over 5,000 Pounds of Goods For Local Food Bank

After roughly 5,000 pounds of food and $9363.50 later, Central Smith Creamery’s “Fill the Truck” campaign was a success in making their donation to Kawartha Food Share (KFS) on Friday.

(from left to right) Jenn Scates, Central Smith Creamery co-owner; Ashlee Aitken, Kawartha Food Share general manager; Ian Scates, Central Smith Creamery co-owner and Derek Fraser, Central Smith Creamer truck driver piled among the totes and bins of the food collections from over 40 different businesses. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

The Selwyn creamery asked over 20 businesses to be drop-off locations for the collected goods from Nov. 26 to Dec. 17. Once the campaign caught on, it quickly grew to over 40 participating businesses and organizations.

“The Women’s Business Network (of Peterborough) was a big help in getting it up to 40 as well as our network of people in the height of the pandemic,” explained Jenn Scates, Central Smith Creamery co-owner. “We reached out to local businesses and highlighted them in our reel and we just reached out to those people again and asked if they wanted to be on board and many of those people jumped into this.”

Scates along with husband and co-owner Ian highlighted notable donors such as Kawartha Metals Corporation donating $5,000, Kawartha Orthodontics matching the cash donations made at the Creamery dollar for dollar and Chemong Public School organized their own food drive to contribute. The couple was grateful to all participants in the campaign.

When Central Smith dropped off the goods to KFS, Ashlee Aitken, KFS general manager believes that the total goods could weigh more than 5,000 pounds. An official weight will be determined over the weekend.

"I had full expectations that they would fill the truck but seeing it here in person and fill it to the brim is just absolutely insane," she said.

The food will be distributed to 37 food agencies affiliated with KFS. Donated toys will be given to the Salvation Army.

“It's exciting to be a part of Peterborough and we've always said it's one of the most generous communities that anyone could live in," said Ian. "We feel so grateful and fortunate to be a part of it."

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