Giving Tuesday @ PEC Fresh!

Cam Bedford is Chair of Prince Edward Learning Centre’s Board of Directors and a long-time tax filing volunteer with PELC’s community volunteer income tax program. His Op-Ed appears in the Nov. 26 edition of the Picton Gazette.

“What is Giving Tuesday?”

Giving Tuesday started as a beautiful idea: balancing the consumer frenzy of Black Friday and Cyber Monday with a day of “radical generosity.” From its origins in New York, #GivingTuesday has grown into a global movement dedicated to giving back through donations, volunteering, and acts of kindness. 

In Prince Edward County, we are blessed to have a strong tradition of giving, with robust service clubs, charitable organizations, and a small army of volunteers donating their time and talent to make life better for everyone. Many of these are dedicated to making sure people in our community have enough to eat. 

Despite the County’s agricultural abundance, soaring grocery prices and the rising cost of living have left many in our community struggling to put nutritious food on the table. The statistics are sobering: One in four households in Hastings and Prince Edward Counties regularly experience food insecurity, among the highest rates in the province. Constant stress over having enough to eat can mean relying on cheaper, lower-nutrient foods, or even missing meals.

Our food banks work hard to help meet emergency needs, but fostering sustainability takes a variety of resources. Things like community suppers, good food boxes, and better access to groceries.

Enter PEC Fresh

PEC Fresh is helping to meet this need by making fresh fruits and vegetables more affordable and accessible. The market started in 2020 as an initiative of Prince Edward Learning Centre. Once a week, PELC’s Picton office transforms into the produce section of a grocery store. Wholesale fruits and vegetables are delivered fresh that day, including produce from our local farmers, with the savings passed on to customers. 

Now five years old, PEC Fresh has expanded to satellite locations at the County Food Hub in Sophiasburgh, and a bi-weekly market at the Royal Canadian Legion in Consecon, increasing access to fresh produce in food deserts. Volunteer drivers deliver orders to customers who can’t shop in person. 

Food security is one pillar of the work done by PELC staff and volunteers to build a more resilient community, alongside youth job training, help accessing benefits, filing taxes, educational upgrading and connecting with community. Staff are also preparing a new poverty-reduction initiative for 2026. “Getting Ahead in a Just-Getting-By World” is an intensive program of personal exploration, designed to help participants write a new story for their future. 

PELC remains, first and foremost, a skills, education and training centre, and many people come through our doors in order to pursue learning goals. We also understand that, on a fundamental level, people cannot learn when they don’t have enough to eat.

Moving from ‘Deals’ to ‘Meals’

This year, after the Black Friday rush, we hope our community will join us in shifting focus from deals to meals, and support one of the many excellent food security initiatives in our community.