Helping Hands
A truck full of donated food. Mountains of warm clothing. Boxes of ear plugs.
Part 1: Hero to Zero: Dan’s Story Part 2: The Kindness of Strangers
It was brutally cold the first week the Freedom Convoy was in Ottawa. Storage space was limited, and food left outdoors froze solid. In the neighbourhood in which their van was parked, Dan says these problems were addressed by the arrival of a 30-foot-long refrigerated truck.
Also known as ‘reefers,’ these vehicles are normally used to transport perishables to supermarkets. It’s Dan’s understanding that two brothers near Sarnia, Ontario (an 8-hour drive away), sent the truck to Ottawa to support the convoy. But not before it had been filled with $15,000 of donated food. In his words:
Lots of bacon, sausages, hamburgers. They had juices, and lots of water. They had cereals, they had soups - you name it, it was a grocery store all in the back of this reefer. And there was people constantly sorting through everything, and reorganizing.
Skids were recycled into stairs to make access easier. Rather than slowing down, the donations kept flooding in. Eventually the truck couldn’t hold any more.
If one walked through the streets on which the truckers were parked, random banquet tables displayed snacks, bags of apples and potatoes, an array of toiletries (including ear plugs by the boxful) - for the taking. Everywhere you looked food was being prepared at outdoor cooking stations.
No one went hungry. Everyone was fed: homeless people, truckers, locals, and tourists. Just stand in line and hot food’s yours.
In Dan’s words:
Everybody was just helping everybody. I personally went to a [local charity] where we donated a bunch of food and clothing. Because people were bringing tons of clothing - like coats, socks, underwear, hats, mitts, hand warmers, feet warmers. And we literally grabbed a bunch of it and filled the back of this lady’s jeep and took it there.
Part 4: One Big Circle