Food producers group to hold drive-thru giveaway

Farm & Food Care P.E.I., with help from local producers, will give away 3,000 free food packages over the next two Saturdays.

The group usually hosts afree breakfast for Islanders at a local farm, but the 2020 Breakfast on the Farm event, planned for MacKenzie Produce in Stratford, had to be cancelled because of COVID-19 restrictions. There will be a drive-thru food giveaway instead.

"With COVID-19 there's a lot of people that have lost their jobs or temporarily lost their jobs, so we just want to help people out," said Santina Beaton, the Farm & Food Care P.E.I. co-ordinator with the P.E.I. Federation of Agriculture.

"Consumers will be driving through and stopping and then volunteers will be placing the packages just in the trunks of the vehicles. And we're just asking drivers to stay in their vehicles."

Each package will have a one-litre carton of ADL milk, cabbage from MacKenzie Produce, and a 10-poundbag of potatoes from the P.E.I. Potato Board and several producers.

The drive-thrus take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on June 27 at the Pownal Sports Centre and then on July 4 at Credit Union Place in Summerside.

The giveaway is similar to ones staged byIsland Producers Helping Islanders in April.

Farm & Food Care P.E.I. is an umbrella group of farming organizations, producers, and retailers that aim to strengthen the connection between people and their food.

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