In late March, 35 Canterbury Court residents helped feed our community by making sandwiches en masse for an Atlanta-based non-profit organization called The Sandwich Project.
It’s not the first time Canterbury Court has helped in this capacity. A smaller group of residents in assisted living recently made sandwiches for this program with one of their Activities Directors, Amy Maslia. Heather Flaherty, a Canterbury Court Chaplain, heard about their work and was very excited to learn about what they had done and expand on it. “As a chaplain, I love putting groups together to do good,” she says. She wanted to participate again with the whole Canterbury Court community. Planning efforts were minimal–just word of mouth and a few flyers. Nonetheless, they had 35 residents pitch in to make 400 sandwiches in one hour!
The original intention was to make 200 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but The Sandwich Project notified Canterbury Court that they had supplies for additional meat and cheese sandwiches but no one to make them. Residents rose to the challenge and doubled their originally intended output! Activities Director Rebecca Olsen donated 200 packs of raisins and granola bars to be included as well. That one hour of work had a huge impact. The Canterbury Court goods likely went to families living in local extended-stay hotels. They came at a crucial time that aligned with school spring break, a period when families of school-age children can often find themselves in need. “The residents really want to do this kind of thing; it touches their hearts,” says Heather.
Many Canterbury Court residents were regular volunteers in their churches and communities, and they want to continue that sort of work. In fact, once the sandwiches were made, the first question on residents’ lips was, “When are we going to do this again?” To answer this, Heather intends to grow what they’ve started into an organized quarterly event, with the possibility of doing even more if additional food supplies are donated. She says, “That’s what’s so lovely about Canterbury; they really, really have a heart for helping.”