On Saturday, April 22, the Southwestern Ontario Gleaners held their annual Spring Banquet at the Portuguese Club of Leamington. Over 350 guests attended the event that featured a live auction and a silent auction.

Music was provided by a quartet of musicians – Joel Westlake, Rick Taves, Lionel Knights and David Light.

Generous sponsors and individual donors helped bring in a net total of close to $90,000 for the work of the SWO Gleaners.

The guest speaker was Kevin Broadwood, President of Loads of Love. He spoke about the valuable partnership between his organization and the SWO Gleaners in sending food to Ukraine and other countries around the world.

The SWO Gleaners is a charity that takes non-marketable produce and through the help of volunteers, dehydrates it to form a nutritious dried soup mix. This soup mix is then distributed through local and international partners to fight hunger and food insecurity locally and around the world.

The SWO Gleaners would like to thank everyone who came to the event, bought an auction item or donated. It was a great success! For more information or for volunteer opportunities, please call the SWO Gleaners at 519-326-7687.