What started with a family dinner and extra leftovers has expanded into Operation Warm Hearts & Full Bellies — a grassroots local initiative that aims to help families and individuals struggling to access food throughout Sarnia.
“We were having dinner… and it was just the four of us and I said, there's no way we can eat a whole turkey by ourselves,” said co-organizer Lainey Brooker. “We decided we were going to make up extra plates with our leftovers, then when we put a post [online] up about it, the amount of people that messaged saying they needed food was just unreal.
“And then the whole community got together for that first day.”
“Nine turkeys we cooked,” added Nora Brooker. “And it has just spiralled into something unimaginable.”
Operation Warm Hearts & Full Bellies is different from other local agencies offering food services as they do not require proof of income — no questions are asked, and they meet people where they are at.
“So if you don't have a vehicle, that's not a barrier to your ability to get food, because we're out delivering anyways,” Lainey explained. “A lot of the people that are on the Golden Mile don't have the ability to get to food banks and things like that.
“A lot of the people who, even if they could gain access to get to a food bank, have lost their ID’s. So they have no way of getting help.”
The group has several meeting locations that they let the public know about — the Sarnia Library, the overflow shelter on Exmouth Street, The Inn of the Good Shepherd Lodge, and the motels along the Golden Mile.
“A lot of the motels are housing homeless families right now, so the motels are really a spot that we try to hit as often as we can because of that,” said Lainey.
Operation Warm Hearts has been active since December.
“It started out as what was supposed to be a day thing, and we've done it every day since,” Lainey said. “We're a great team, and we have a lot of amazing volunteers who jump on board to help out. So it's really about taking turns and kind of using each person's expertise to their advantage.
“Nora is great with numbers and planning travel routes,” she continued.” I'm good with organizing stuff and my daughter gets organized behind the scenes and sorts all our donations.”
With full time jobs during the day, the Brookers often end up working late into the night, or starting before sunrise.
“We usually work from about 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m... I usually wake up around 4 a.m…. [The other day] I started at 3 a.m. making 32 hampers,” explained Lainey.
Recently, more volunteers have been helping with cooking meals. Each night, they fill their van with supplies – including drinks, snacks, blankets, gloves, socks, body care products, feminine hygiene products – and start their deliveries.
“We literally load the van with absolutely anything they could need. And then we go pick up our meal from whoever is cooking for us that day and start our deliveries at nine o'clock. We are usually done by about 11:45 p.m."
The delivery van stocked full of supplies is a welcome sight for those in need.
“We have all the seats taken out of our van except for the driver and passenger seats. Most of the people that we serve know that the back half is kind of up for grabs for them. So if they need something, they're welcome to look in, see what they need, what they want, we'll usually get it for them unless, of course, it's the clothes which are usually at the back. And we just open the truck and let them go through that.”
“We make 100 meals a night, and then on top of those 100 people, we are also serving families in their homes,” Lainey added.
Operation Warm Hearts offers Hampers on a two-week rotation — you can’t receive a hamper two weeks in a row — which the team says helps eliminate the issue of not having enough donations for the number of requests throughout the city.
“We went from having absolutely nothing the other day to enough supplies to make 32 hampers. And that was donations in just one day alone,” explained Lainey.
Sarnia residents donating supplies and volunteering to cook or deliver meals is what is helping sustain Operation Warm Hearts.
“It just miraculously happens like that every time,” said Lainey. “The numbers grow, the food does too. Every family that asked ended up with food.”
If you're in need of a hamper, or would like to donate, visit the Warm Hearts Full Bellies Facebook page.