New location brings new debt to Dundas County Food Bank

The Dundas County Food Bank’s Every Plate Full campaign wrapped-up with a final food drive at Riley’s Valu-mart in Morrisburg. Food donations totalled 351 pounds and $493.70 was collected.

Also contributing to the campaign were students at North Dundas District High School who collected 360 pounds of food from a food drive organized by the Futures class.

Empathy was the virtue of the month for students at Winchester Public School. Students collected 628 items totalling 571 pounds to show their empathy with people in need in the community. They easily surpassed their target of 455 items — the number of staff and students at the school.

The final totals for the Every Plate Full campaign was 2,806 pounds of food and $2,131.15 in cash donations.

Using information from Statistics Canada and the national Hunger Count survey, food banks are able to provide three meals to people in need for every dollar donated. 

Based on this ‘meals measure’ the equivalent of 6,393 meals were donated during the campaign.

“I am very pleased with the results. This is the first time we have tried a county-wide food drive at various locations’ said Ian McKelve, Dundas County Food Bank Administrator. “Our community was once again very generous with their donations. Of course we couldn’t have done it without our volunteers who generously donated their time to gather and process the food we collected.”

Every Plate Full was a national campaign organized by Food Banks Canada to make sure none of our neighbours went hungry this summer.

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  “An event like this makes a huge world of difference,” said Ashley Manwell, area co-ordinator for the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada.  “Every dollar raised can bring someone home who is recovering from […]

 

Upper Canada Village’s award-winning fall event Pumpkinferno is getting ready to enchant visitors once again this fall with more than 50 percent new themed exhibits.  

The creative and artistic event will be open on select nights starting Friday, October 3 until Saturday, November 1.  

Pumpkinferno is a unique blend of artistry, imagination and ingenuity.  A total of 30 exhibits – half of them brand-new – will display more than 6,000 intricately carved lit artificial pumpkins.  

Highlights of the new exhibits this fall include The Animals of Noah’s Ark featuring animals large and small; Evolution of the Ford Vehicle, a display of nine Ford vehicles; Monster Smash, an exhibit of iconic Halloween Movie Monsters including a Vampire, Monster of Frankenstein, Frankenbride, a Werewolf and a Mummy, plus many more!  

The popular Sound & Light show has been newly re-designed into a “Pumpkin Promenade” exhibit in front of Crysler Hall.

The event will see other refinements including more wall washer lighting and mood lighting for the exhibits, more sound effects and improved flow of visitors through the admissions area with an express entry line for pre-paid ticketholders.

“Now in our third year, we have raised the bar creatively on the level of artistry of the exhibits we will have on display,” says Geoff Waycik, Manager, Upper Canada Village. “The Pumpkinferno team has risen to the challenge developing an amazing array of new themed exhibits and created some real masterpieces.  Our whole team is very excited to share this newly inspired experience with our visitors”

The evening of Wednesday, October 15 will be set aside exclusively to accommodate groups of people with physical disabilities so they can ride in their own vehicles to view Pumpkinferno. Only ‘special needs’ vans or parabuses will be allowed.  Coaches and school buses cannot be accommodated.  

Upper Canada Village will provide a staff person familiar with the Village roadways in the dark to lead the vehicles through the site.  Admission to tour on this night is $10 for adults and $8 for seniors and youth.  Reservations are required and may be made by calling 613-543-4328 or 800-437-2233.

Pumpkinferno will feature a display of local school children’s artwork over the course of the event in a special exhibit “Painted Pumpkin Art” in the fairgrounds of Upper Canada Village.  

Upper Canada Village supplied the locally grown pumpkins to students from grades Kindergarten to Grade 8 in schools of the Upper Canada District School Board and the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario.  

Over 1,000 school children from 22 schools will share their own unique artistically painted real pumpkins which will be on display for the duration of Pumpkinferno.

Visitors can start their visit with a pre-tour dinner at historic Willard’s Hotel and the Harvest Barn Restaurant will also be open during regular Pumpkinferno hours for dining after dark. Upper Canada Golf Course restaurant located just across the road from Upper Canada Village will also be open during Pumpkinferno.  

See for yourself why Pumpkinferno has earned “Best New Event in Ontario” designation by Festival and Events Ontario, “Tourism event of the Year” by the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario and “New Company of the Year” by Ottawa Tourism.

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