After having to access social services in Cambridge years ago, Jamie Colwell wanted to give back to the community that helped him when he had nowhere else to turn.
Colwell lived in community housing and had to access the food bank nearly 16 years ago, so in July he decided to hold a food drive to raise donations and awareness for the Cambridge Food Bank.
“They don't get luxury items like peanut butter, nut free bars and fruit cups, those are things that just don't seem to come in as much as everything else,” said Colwell.
It was the second drive Colwell had stepped up to organize. The first time he had a target goal of 170 jars of peanut butter and ended up with over 700.
This time he was hoping to raise $5,400 to buy the school snacks for children in the community.
“I’m not affluent or rich so I can’t donate a lot of money, but what I can do is donate my time and help organize this initiative to support these services,” said Colwell.
Dianne McLeod is the executive director of the Cambridge Food Bank and said initiatives like Colwell's are a great boost to their programs.
“We're seeing over 1,100 families a month at a time when our donors are also really feeling the pinch financially and not able to donate as much,” said McLeod. So our food donations in particular have been down pretty significantly and I'm sure that's because people are struggling to put food on their own table.”
Colwell lives by a motto made famous by Princess Diana: “Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.”
Now that he is in a position to give back, he wants to help and remove any stereotypes of the type of people accessing these services.
“The stereotype is someone who is disenfranchised or homeless, this is not the case, I am living proof of this,” said Colwell. “I was living in a home, had a job, but I didn’t know where I’d get my next meal or how I’d pay rent. This could happen to anyone.”
“People say we’re all in the same boat, I don’t think this is true. We are all in the same storm, but some are in yachts, some are on buoys and some are drowning,” said Colwell. “We need to look beyond ourselves and say, what can I do to help?”
