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ONE CARE Home & Community Support

This past December, Gay Lea Foundation directors travelled to Clinton, Ontario to visit the central hub of ONE CARE Home and Community Support Services, a local, not-for-profit health organization that provides a range of supportive care services for seniors and people with disabilities in Huron and Perth counties.

Serving more than 6,000 people per year with programs like Meals on Wheels, Transportation, Adult Day Programs, Seniors Dining, home care, exercise and wellness, the organization works to support and strengthen the health, independence and quality of life for individuals and their families, many of whom live in remote, rural areas within the community.

During the visit, directors were welcomed into the centre’s commercial kitchen to see the newly installed walk-in freezer, purchased with the support of a $20,000 grant from the Gay Lea Foundation in 2018. The Foundation was also acknowledged by the organization’s Executive Director, Kathy Scanlon, in a festive address to approximately 90 seniors who had gathered for the weekly Seniors Dining program at the centre.

“The generous $20,000 donation from the Gay Lea Foundation directly supported the replacement of the walk-in freezer at our commercial kitchen here in Clinton, where 125 to 200 hot, ready-to-eat meals are prepared and delivered across Huron and Perth counties to our clients each day,” said Scanlon. “The new, more efficient freezer provides us with more room to store our frozen food products, ensuring we can continue to provide the delicious, quality food our clients count on.”

Every year, ONE CARE prepares and delivers more than 20,000 hot meals through their Meals on Wheels program and also for five Adult Day Programs in Clinton, Wingham, Goderich, Grand Bend and Exeter. The kitchen also produces an additional 2,300 meals a year for the Congregate Dining for Seniors program, held each Wednesday at the Clinton site.

“The kitchen here is essential to our meal service programs, which are growing,” said Scanlon. “Our meal production in the Clinton kitchen has expanded by 50 per cent over the last year alone, as the program has expanded into more rural areas in North and South Huron.”

“It was an honour for us to see in person how Gay Lea Foundation dollars have helped ONE CARE provide much-needed supportive services in this community,” said Foundation Chair, Rachel Caldara. “It was clear to those of us visiting that these services, delivered with warmth and compassion by a dedicated team of staff and volunteers, offer a critical network of support and a caring community for seniors and people with disabilities living at home.”

 

 

About the Gay Lea Foundation

The Gay Lea Foundation is the official registered charity and collaborative forum for Gay Lea Foods and its members, directors and employees to support families and communities in need. Since receiving charitable status in 2014, the Foundation has provided more than $890,000 in funding support for education, poverty relief and community well-being projects in Canada and around the world. The primary source of funding for the Foundation is an annual $150,000 contribution from Gay Lea Foods, which is supplemented by personal contributions from across the Gay Lea Foods family. Funding applications are assessed twice a year by the Foundation’s Board of Directors, which is comprised of Gay Lea Foods Directors, delegates, dairy producer members and employees.


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