Green Box Program Needs Volunteers

Pam Lazore and Sweets Jacobs are the women that founded the Green Food Box program in March 2010 with the goal of getting much needed fruits and vegetables into the homes of Akwesasne.

With the growing number of chronic illness in the community, chief among them being diabetes, the community was in dire need of a program and assistance. Partnering with the Cornwall Green Food Box Program gave Jacobs and Lazore a good foundation on the logistics of programs like this and allowed them to start their own in March of last year, completing their first distribution the following July with the intention to help combat the enervation in Akwesasne. They had sold 246 bags, and continued to gradually increase sales this past year until doubling their sales to 494 bags this month.

Community Support and Welfare came on board and bought 250 bags, 160 in Kana:takon and 90 at the A’nowara’ko:wa Arena in Kawehno:ke, which was a marking of growth for the organization. As things picked up the Green Food Box Program brought on a dietician to offer recipes that include many of the foods in the boxes as another way to help Akwesasne become healthier.

“The community, they make it a success by ordering.” explains Jacobs, “but we are definitely in need of more volunteers.”

From July to November the program consisted of staff doing the packing before starting their first call for volunteers in the community last December, receiving five volunteers at their Kana:takon distribution site and one at their Kawehno:ke distribution site, but they are always looking for more help.

If you’d like to volunteer or need any more information, you can contact Pam Lazore at 613-575-2341, extension 3232 or you can email her at [email protected].