Victory’s Kitchen, a custom manufacturer of frozen and fresh kettle-cooked foods, has donated tractor-trailer loads of fresh food to food banks and hospitals in Canada and in the U.S. to help support people in need and frontline healthcare workers.
Allan Kliger, president of Victory’s Kitchen, says he and his team simply want to give back to people in need.
“It’s part of being charitable at time when people really need it.”
Kliger says his initiatives began when he learned that food shelters were in dire need of masks so the company donated thousands of masks to food shelter frontline workers and then decided that his company could also help with providing food to the same shelters. During this time, he received a call from a friend and neighbour, Robert Bielak from St. Helen’s Meat Packers Ltd.
“He asked if we could do something for healthcare frontline workers. So we collaborated on this; he provided the chicken and we made the fresh food and ended up running up a full tractor trailer of two products, chicken chili and vegetarian garden and lentil soup. Our first drop-off was at Humber River Valley Hospital and then we sent the truck to Mount Sinai hospital.”
Since then the initiative has gained traction and other suppliers have come on board to provide care packages of food to frontline healthcare workers at hospitals in the Greater Toronto Area.
“We plan to continue this and circulate through all the hopsitals. Each trailer is about $50,000 worth of food. We’ve also sent a full tractor trailer of product to New York state because we do a lot of business in the U.S. and the food is being distributed to food shelters in the New Jersey area.”
Kliger says he’ll continue his donations during this time of need. “Supplying food shelters is something I don’t want to ever end and I’m happy to do it and it’s simply part of giving back to our communities. The tractor trailers of food for frontline healthcare workers will end at some point when it won’t be necessary. Right now it’s the right thing to do and we will know with this plan has run its course. We’re all in this together and it’s important that we help in whatever way we can. This is our way of helping.”
