Founder of No One Goes Hungry honoured with region’s philanthropy impact award

As Carey Benvenuti listened to the presenter list off her accomplishments, it was as though she was learning about a third person.

She remembers thinking, “that lady sounds kind of cool” but it was never how she thought of herself.

Benvenuti founded No One Goes Hungry, a non-profit organization that supplies meals to communities across the region, seven years ago and through that time, it became an extension of who she is.

She didn’t start it to win awards, and certainly has not done it alone. So to sit and listen as the Niagara Region presented her with the T. Roy Humanitarian Award at the 2023 Impact Awards, Benvenuti was “bowled over.”

“If you look at the past recipients of this award, they’ve done so many outstanding things for the Niagara community, I am just blown away that I’m considered to be in that calibre as a humanitarian,” she said.

“It honestly just inspires me to continue to keep No One Goes Hungry at the level that it is and can continue to grow.”

Benvenuti began volunteering on the Salvation Army mobile outreach truck, looking for an opportunity to give back, years ago. She remembers thinking only homeless people used the service but quickly realized it was seniors and families — anyone struggling to put a meal on the table.

For them, it was one less meal to worry about.

She wondered how else to help, knowing the organization had a limited budget. She loved to cook, so Benvenuti got her food handler’s certificate, grabbed about eight friends and after one day in the kitchen, prepared about 450 pounds of food.

“I just thought, look what we can do when everybody just brings a few ingredients together and throws it into a pot. We cooked an astronomical amount of food and then it just grew from there,” she said. “To me, that’s one of the gifts about No One Goes Hungry — it’s a manageable impact that residents can make in their communities.”

Now, the group has the cook-off down to a science. Once a month, Benvenuti buys a few thousand dollars worth of groceries, and a group of volunteers gather at the Stamford Centre Volunteer Firemen’s Association kitchen – Benvenuti said every month, since the very beginning, the kitchen has been made available to them without fail – preparing 1,600 to 2,000 meals in about three and a half hours.

Another group picks up the food and delivers it to their partners, with all meals in support of

YWCA and YMCA shelters, as well as supplying daily meals for two high schools.

The volunteers continued dedication always surprises Benvenuti. Every month, watching as the clock creeps up to 5 p.m., she wonders if “this is the time they’re not going to come?”

“Without fail, they come. They come regardless of their personal situations, family members passing, they’ve had a crappy day, work schedules, whatever,” said Benvenuti, who said the group runs everything through Facebook.

“Without them, No One Goes Hungry wouldn’t be what it is.”

Growing up watching her mom — who was part of the original group that opened Nova House — volunteer, there was always an emphasis on giving back, especially if you are fortunate enough to do so.

And Benvenuti has been. No One Goes Hungry is not her full-time job — she is a mortgage agent — but being her own boss gives her flexibility. The passion for her job opened the door to give back to the community, and keeps her going month after month.

During the COVID-19 pandemic it was a challenge, and with the kitchen shut down, it was finding ways to continue to help. Benvenuti said she partnered with a Mississauga organization to deliver 800 meals every week to people on the streets and in encampments, even to people’s homes.

In the months since, food costs have been a struggle, with prices rising about 20 to 50 per cent, on main staples. Even with that nothing has changed. Its mandate is everyone has the right to good food — no cutting corners.

“I need to feed people what I would feed my own family and not just feed people to feed them. Just because you’re poor doesn’t mean that you should lack in quality,” she said, adding she used to have it down to about one dollar to $1.25 per meal but has gotten “more creative.”

Food insecurity is an issue across the region, and that has become even more evident in the number of students taking part in its daily meal school program. Benvenuti said the group began providing meals after a few Niagara Falls schools lost funding for its supplemental lunch programs.

In the beginning, about 25 students on average came for a hot meal. Now, it is about 35 to 50 students, depending on the time of month.

“We’re seeing more and more kids and families that are living in motels, around the Lundy’s Lane area so they have less access to (preparing) healthy good. My goal is to just continue to support the schools as much as possible,” she said.

Her hope is to be in more schools in the coming years, and also ensure each school has a community pantry so kids can pick-up food to take home.

“I really believe that the last thing a high school kid needs is the burden of what they’re going to eat that day. And I know that high school kids will feed their younger siblings before they’ll feed themselves.”

No One Goes Hungry is now a “well-oiled machine” and although it does not have charitable status — its partners help facilitate larger donations and offer tax receipts — it grows because of generosity of people.

“They give it out of the goodness of their own heart because they know it all goes back into the community. We have no overhead, there’s no board of directors or financials that need to be prepared,” said Benvenuti. “Every dollar that comes in, goes right back out.”

Even still, seeing the group has prepared more than 150,000 meals over seven years makes her very proud. After the monthly cook-off, everyone feels like a “million dollars.”

“We have just an amazing core group of volunteers,” she said. “Stu is in charge of mac and cheese … he had never really cooked before and now he’s a boss in the kitchen. And we have Barb who mans the flattop and John who cuts everything. They’re the heart of No One Goes Hungry.”

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