OTTAWA FOOD-AID HITS MILESTONE: Surpasses donation of 1-million lb. of beef to food bank

OTTAWA — Ottawa’s annual Food Aid Day hit a big milestone last month surpassing 1 million pounds of ground beef donated to the Ottawa Food Bank since 2005.
Organizer and Navan-area farmer Wyatt McWilliams said 2020 was the first year since the start of the program that the Food Aid Day — with a BBQ at Ottawa city hall — didn’t go ahead. But thanks to some local help, the hungry and local farmers are still being helped.
John Bradley, the owner of JT Bradleys at Navan, east of urban Ottawa, said McWilliams got him involved with the Food Aid Day back in the spring, partnering him with Butchers to Go, a slaughterhouse at Alexandria. For every pound of beef the grocery store sold, it donated $1 to Food Aid, which uses all donations to buy ground beef from local farmers. Tallying up the numbers at the end of September, Bradley had raised $1,500 to buy beef for the poor.
Bradley also partnered with local farmers Bergeron Gardens and Avonmore Berry Farm who weren’t sure early on during the pandemic lockdown where they’d be able to sell their products, including apples, sweet corn and flowers. “So we’ve been selling their products all summer,” Bradley said, “It’s a really good relationship we’ve developed over the last few months.”
McWilliams started Food Aid Day as a way to support local farmers and the poor when countries closed their borders to Canadian cattle after the Mad Cow crisis hit in 2003 when one Alberta cow was diagnosed with the disease.