by Sylene Argent Last week, Janet Martlin, President of FM Industries in Cottam, proudly presented $5000 to the Essex Area Food Bank in her late brother’s honour. Martlin said her brother, Wayne Martlin, passed away a few years ago, but left behind funds for his surviving siblings to donate to worthy causes. Wayne, Martlin said, was deeply interested in conservation, but with knowing demand on area food banks will increase with some jobs being temporarily postponed because of the Coronavirus emergency, she thought her brother would be proud of knowing some of his funds would be used to support area individuals and families in need. With that in mind, Martlin presented Lonnie Jones, a Director on the volunteer Board of Management for the Essex Area Food Bank, with the generous donation recently. Her other brother, Steve Martlin, also made a donation from Wayne’s funds to a food bank in his neighbourhood of Squamish, BC. Martlin said, when she heard people were getting laid off, that there must be families and individuals facing hardships. She wanted her brother’s funds to go to helping those individuals at the local level. “My brother would be proud,” Martlin said of making the donation to the Essex Area Food Bank. She added that she hopes others in a position to give will do so to help others in the community in need. The donation, Jones said, was a wonderful gift to the Food Bank. “With funds like that, we will be able to feed as many as we can over the next little while.” Jones has indicated that the Essex Area Food Bank has not yet noticed an increase in those reaching out for help because of the Coronavirus yet, but he suspects there will be in the coming weeks. With the Food Bank being the recipient of many generous donations lately, he said volunteers have been able to expand its service that would typically include only serving clients to those facing hardships due to the current pandemic. Non food bank clients, in need of help because of the Coronavirus pandemic, do not need to be registered with the Essex Area Food Bank to get assistance, they can just provide their name, phone number, and address at its facility, which is now located in the basement of Essex United Church. With the current health-risk emergency, the Essex Area Food Bank has changed it hours of operation to 8:30 am to 11:45 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It also had adopted additional safety procedures.
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