An outpouring of donations and support is being given to the Glace Bay Food Bank, after vandals poured oil on its vegetable garden, destroying it Tuesday.
Volunteers, some of whom had tears in their eyes when the garden was vandalized, are smiling once again after hundreds of people dropped by the food bank Thursday to lend a hand or offer a donation.
“Carrots, potatoes, and some hamburger patties,” says Margie Dean, one of the food donors. “The vandalism is a rotten thing to do to anyone.”
Others are offering up manual labour. One man is volunteering to help remediate the soil after the vandals doused it with some kind of motor or furnace oil.
“I saw it on the news the other day,” says labour donor Allan Daley. “I just felt bad about what happened, and I just wanted to help out as much as I can.”
Gestures of kindness have been pouring in from as far away as British Columbia. Staff were especially touched by an offer from an eight-year-old boy.
“He has a little garden himself, that he and his father have,” says Glace Bay Food Bank co-ordinator Patricia Hurley. “So he got his mom to take him to the grocery store, to get some groceries, bring them in. When his garden is grown, he said he wants to come back and donate some groceries. To make sure everybody has something to eat.”
It seems there will be enough vegetables for all. Food bank officials say the damaged section of the garden is salvageable.
“I think we will overpass the amount of vegetables we grew last year,” says garden co-ordinator Kimberly McPherson. “Because of the setup and the boxes, the community has helped us build.”
The vegetable donations are not only helping to replenish what was lost in the garden; they are also helping to lift people’s spirits.
“They didn’t knock me down, they just made me stronger,” says volunteer Fred Peach. “I’ll just grow this garden better and better every year.”
“What happened here, the support has outdone,” says Hurley. “So the person isn’t winning, whoever did it.”
There is still no update on the police investigation, but everyone is determined to soldier on.
“Everybody chips in a little bit,” says Dean. “Nobody goes hungry in Glace Bay.”
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Ryan MacDonald
