It’s when women break down crying as they visit the Matthew 25 Foodbank in Windsor that Cindy Loane knows that the work she is doing is important.
Cindy, with several other volunteers and a board of directors feeds about 60 people on a regular basis and it’s always a struggle to have enough food on hand.
That’s why the food bank is holding a fundraising auction at Avon View School March 26 from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Volunteers are asked to donate new articles of all kinds that can be sold. Donors can include busineses. For example Soignee, a local fashion store, has donated some women’s clothing.
Items can be dropped at the food bank, 1699 King St., Windsor, near Garland’s Crossing, on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Cindy doesn’t talk much about her clients except to say that misfortune can happen to anybody. In fact, that’s how she found her life’s work. Her family was burned out of their home when she was a child and, when the got back on their feet, her mother, Dorothy LeGoffic, began helping needy people they met through their church.
Though her Christian faith is important to Cindy, the food bank is not a religious organization. Cindy says she does it to carry on her mother’s legacy. The name Matthew 25 comes from a verse of the Bible which includes the passage: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
Cindy’s daughter Kyla says faith has nothing to do with her motivations. “I’ve been doing this since I was ten– It’s our life.”
A single mother who works three jobs to make ends meet, Kyla drives the organization’s van to pick up donations and delivers food to people who can’t get to the food bank.
Right now the food bank still owes money for the turkeys it provided last Christmas. Meeting the monthly rent is always a struggle and only a few items have been donated for the fundraiser.
But, says Cindy with a philosophical shrug, “it will come.”
