Food for Thought Blog

Agency Spotlight: Wilmot Family Resource Centre

April 29th, 2024Agencies, In the Community

Wilmot Family Resource Centre provides a variety of social support services to residents in Wilmot and Wellesley townships. Some of the services they provide include employment services, parenting and family support, Indigenous resources, income tax preparation, and legal clinics.

“We work under a hub model,” explains Trisha Robinson, the executive director at Wilmot Family Resource Centre. “We are a trauma-informed social service agency. We do almost everything. People come in and we see what they need and if we can’t help them, we find someone who can.”

Wilmot Family Resource Centre also offers food assistance to those who need it. With support from The Food Bank of Waterloo Region, they provide a food hamper program Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

“People can come in once a week for support,” Trisha says. “We also do deliveries because we’re in a rural township.”

Each week, Wilmot Family Resource Centre gives out food hampers to about 80 households. Every hamper is filled with healthy and nutritious food that follows Canada’s Food Guide. They also offer options for people with different cultural and dietary needs. If someone needs it, they can also get gas cards, clothing, and toiletries.

“We have two big carts out when people come and we always make sure those carts are filled with soaps, shampoos, Tampax, pads, diapers, briefs for adults, combs… we keep those stocked, so that if people don’t want to ask, they can just pick those things up as they come. That’s to retain dignity,” Trisha explains.

Trisha is proud of the welcoming culture they’ve fostered and how staff go above and beyond to tend to people’s needs.

“We have a really good staff team that really takes people’s dignity and their needs into consideration,” she says. “If somebody needs something special, staff will advocate on their behalf. We’ve gotten people pregnancy tests. We’ve gotten people hemorrhoid cream when they needed it. I feel honoured that people trust us.”

Trisha notes that more and more people who access their services are living in their vehicles.

“In the wintertime, we gave out coolers for people to put their perishable items in so that they didn’t freeze,” she says. “We have given people daily hampers who are living in their vehicles for that very reason if they have nowhere to store the food.”

Trisha is glad they can do something to support those in need, but ultimately, she wishes there was systemic change so that people don’t have to rely on food banks for support.

“People know that we’re here and they can come in and that we can help them with food,” she says. “On one hand, it’s rewarding that we can give people basic needs but on the other hand, it really sucks. It sucks that we need to have food banks. There’s enough food in our country. We do the best we can but it’s not good enough. I hope I live long enough to see where people aren’t relying on food banks. I hope that happens in my lifetime.”

Wilmot Family Resource Centre is one of 120 agencies and community programs with the Community Food Assistance Network. Visit wilmotfamilyresourcecentre.wordpress.com to learn more. If you’d like to help The Food Bank support Network partners like Wilmot Family Resource Centre, visit our Get Involved section on our website to learn more about donating food, funds, or time.