Andrea Florian, a real estate agent in Burlington who has run a weekly food drive since the start of the pandemic, drops off donations at the Burlington Food Bank in Burlington, Ont. on Jan. 14,J.P. MOCZULSKI/The Globe and Mail
The organizers: Andrea Florian, Laura Gill, Barb Cote, Erin Coté, Kathy Maksuta
The pitch: creating the Burlington Cares Food Drive
Like many small enterprises, Andrea Florian’s real estate business in Burlington, Ont., dried up when the pandemic hit in March, 2020.
“I just didn’t want to sit there feeling sorry for myself and everybody on the team sort of said, ‘well, what are we going to do? How can we help?’ ” recalled Ms. Florian.
Her team of four sales representatives – Laura Gill, Barb Cote, Erin Coté, Kathy Maksuta – had been involved in charity work before and they’d run an annual drive for the local food bank. They decided to increase that commitment to a weekly service called the Burlington Cares Food Drive.
Every Thursday e-mails come in from people with items to donate. The team organizes pickups the next day and makes deliveries to the food bank and other organizations.
The food drive has been operating each week since March, 2020, and Ms. Florian said some Fridays the group receives donations from as many as 70 families. They’ve also branched out and delivered diapers, face masks and personal hygiene products to a women’s shelter as well as coats to the Salvation Army and school supplies for children in need. And they’ve helped a single mother with hampers of food. “This particular lady was on her own with a newborn baby and she couldn’t get out to get food and she couldn’t get baby formula. She couldn’t get anything,” said Ms. Florian, 47, who is also a musician. “In those moments you just just want to cry.”
Ms. Florian and her team plan to keep the drive going even after the pandemic. “We think that we’ll just do the food drive every week forever,” she said. “We’ve made some really beautiful connections with people and heard their stories and it’s inspiring for us as well.”
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Paul Waldie