Troyer’s Spices donates $751 worth of spices to The Local Community Food Centre for Giving Tuesday

By Emily Stewart

When Dan Troyer, owner of Troyer’s Spices in St. Marys, dropped off donations of spices and chives at Stratford’s Local Community Food Centre, he saw the excitement from the organization.

“One of the ladies said, ‘Oh, we just ran out of chives and so happy to see that.’ We’ve got lots of chives, so they were very happy and excited,” Troyer said.

He donated two baskets of spices with chives on top, worth $751, to the Local Community Food Centre. The donations came from a Giving Tuesday campaign at Troyer’s Spices where customers could purchase oregano, chives, onion powder, ground cumin and/or Spanish paprika to be donated to the Local Community Food Centre. For every donation, Troyer’s Spices would add another.

“We’re very happy with our customer turnout supporting the Local Community Food Centre. It feels great. It’s definitely worthwhile,” Troyer said.

The Local Community Food Centre, partnered with the United Way Perth-Huron, provides services such as kitchen skills, garden skills, community kitchens and meals, and low-cost community food markets, including the Nourish Market at the St. Marys United Church every first and third Thursday of the month from 2-4 p.m.

Margaret Smart, executive director of the Local Community Food Centre, said the generous donation exceeded her expectations.

“You can just imagine how that’s going to impact both our ability. We then can put that towards food and we can also make that food delicious with all their spices. It’s incredible,” she said. “We had such an incredible, generous Giving Tuesday. It was amazing to see.”

The donated spices will be regularly used by chefs for the community meals provided by The Local. This past year, the organization provided 17,920 meals to members of the community.

“As we come into a new year, we have more and more people showing up for our community meals,” Smart said.

There’s also a growing need for the Nourish Market and Stratford’s Community Access Markets, which provide food at wholesale prices.

“People are just so appreciating being able to access really good food at really affordable prices, so that’s another place where some of that Giving Tuesday will help us to continue to support those markets because we sell our food at cost and so any donations go toward our operating costs,” Smart said.

Knowing that times have been financially difficult for many, Smart appreciates the continued generosity of the community.

“I know that things can be tight right now for so many people, and yet the way that people continue to show up for one another and this whole Giving Tuesday is such an example of that,” she said.