A tradition of making healthy local food affordable for people in Southern Georgian Bay hit an impressive milestone Wednesday.
Volunteers with the Georgian Good Food Box program celebrated the 60,000th package of fruits and vegetables.
“This isn’t just for people on fixed income, this is for everybody. 80 percent of what’s in the box is local and was grown within 50 kilometers of here,” said volunteer Mark Redmond.
The program encourages people to eat more fresh food by making produce more affordable. All of the food is purchased at wholesale and then each package is sold for $15.
“It’s a lot cheaper than going to the grocery store and helps the community more,” said Collingwood resident Michelle Wright.
The sorting happens the third Wednesday of every month at Royal Canadian Legion in Collingwood, St. Patrick’s Church in Stayner and the RecPlex in Wasaga Beach. More than one million pounds of food have been shared since the program started in 2004.
On Wednesday, 400 boxes of produce were distributed across Southern Georgian Bay.
