Rhonda Day’s "most selfish, wonderful thing" turned into a selfless act that now assists local people experiencing homelessness to have warm food in their bellies.
For this week’s edition of People of Collingwood we spoke with Day, 45, co-organizer for the Mobile Soup Kitchen which serves Collingwood, Blue Mountains, Clearview and Wasaga Beach.
Q: For how long have you lived in the South Georgian Bay area?
A: My entire life. I grew up in Collingwood.
I moved to Wasaga Beach as an adult with my husband. We’re minutes from the beach.
I love this whole area. Whenever I hear people here say they’d like to move somewhere else, I think they’re crazy. We have everything here within 15 minutes of anything. It’s heaven.
Q: What schools did you attend growing up?
A: I went to Connaught (Public School). I began high school at Jean Vanier (now Our Lady of the Bay Catholic High School) and finished at Collingwood Collegiate Institute.
Q: Where did life take you after that?
A: I own a cleaning company in the area called Clean Sweeps. It’s been running for more than 20 years.
Just before COVID-19 started, I fell down a flight of stairs and hurt myself. I was unable to work physically anymore. I didn’t shut down the company, but I did make it a lot smaller and easier to handle on my own.
During that time I was laying on the couch, doing nothing. I started to pay attention to Pay It Forward groups on Facebook. People in need can reach out and ask for anything and people in the community can give help.
I really enjoyed that. I was helping one family specifically that was really struggling. I started carrying things around with me, like eggs, blankets and heating pads. I would just stop when I saw people in need.
I noticed it made me feel better. I was definitely struggling with COVID and my fall, and my company being a lot smaller. It really made me feel good to make other people feel good. For a long time, I joked that it was the most selfish, wonderful thing I’ve ever done.
Q: You are currently one of a few organizers who started a mobile soup kitchen that serves municipalities in South Georgian Bay. Can you tell me how that started?
A: There was a meeting following a Facebook post that started all of this.
We were concerned about a (homeless) encampment that had been abandoned and was very close to where I grew up. The river was right beside it, so we were concerned about that.
We met there. There were councillors, police and people from the Busby Centre. We just started talking.
Coun. Chris Potts offered the use of his catering truck when he wasn’t using it for his business. We just jumped on it. I can’t thank him enough.
Q: What drives you to want to do this work?
A: I liked chatting with (the area’s homeless population). Many of them are alone. It’s easy to pass them by and not think about it. It’s easy to blame them for where they are. I get that there are people who choose to put themselves in this position, but there are so many reasons why that happens.
They should still be cared about. They’re lost. They have no one.
I think it helps them to know that someone is caring for them.
Q: Why did you opt to start the program as a mobile soup kitchen?
A: At the camps, we knew it was really hard for them to get to places because they’re so spread out. There are different camps all around the town.
Originally we had just thought about having a soup kitchen. When you’re living (on the outskirts of town), it can be hard to get to places.
We thought bringing (food) to them would be best. A lot of times when they’re given food, it’s like a sandwich or a muffin. We wanted to bring them something hot and nutritious.
None of our stops are actually at the camps. We stop at areas we know are nearby so they can choose if they want to come out and get to us as we’re within a reasonable walking distance.
We stop at the Busby Centre at the end of the day and we give them all our extras.
Q: Where does the food come from?
A: We have about seven or eight restaurants that help that are all in the area, and we’re continually reaching out to restaurants. We thought of getting volunteers to make soup, but we haven’t needed to yet.
The Corner Cafe and Grill in Thornbury, Kitch’n Savvy and Charlie’s Diner in Stayner, Sol Kitchen and Kelsey’s in Collingwood and Northwinds in the Blue Mountains all donate. The people who are homeless in Collingwood come from all these areas, so I really like that they all donate.
We have different volunteers that sign up each time we go out.
I absolutely love how willing so many people were to help, and how quickly it went from nothing to what it is now. It was less than a week.
Q: Where do you foresee this program going?
A: Right now we’re only going out twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday.
I would really like to offer it at least every other day, or maybe every day.
We had a guy last night who told us that since we’ve started, he is no longer panhandling. If we can make that (impact) by just feeding people... it really benefits everyone.
Q: What are your hobbies outside of work and the soup kitchen?
A: The soup kitchen has taken up all my spare time lately. (laughs)
I have a daughter, and I spend time with her. I did enjoy skiing, but now I have a lot more free time than I’m used to. I’m hoping to help out with other community dinners. Not the cooking, but maybe they need help collecting and distributing their meals?
Many people (experiencing homelessness) may not want to sit down with the community.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like people in Collingwood to know about you?
A: My friend Holly Holmes has been doing this with me from the start, and Kyla Dawne does all the administrative work. Volunteer Jay Smith drives the truck and has never missed a trip.
We’re always looking for volunteers.
Please look around in your own community. If everybody did something in their own town similar to what’s going on here, it would be great. We’d have a lot less hungry.
If you’d like to help, the Mobile Soup Kitchen can be reached through their Facebook group, here.
For our feature People of Collingwood, we speak with interesting people who are either from or are contributing to the Collingwood community in some way, letting them tell their own stories in their own words. This feature runs on CollingwoodToday every weekend. If you’d like to nominate or suggest someone to be featured in People of Collingwood, email [email protected].
