Food by the Boxful
Yesterday I wrote about Ted and Sally arriving in Regina in their big rig, flying Canadian flags. Parked at a truck stop for their first night as part of the Freedom Convoy, Ted is already asleep in the bunk. It’s nearly midnight, but before Sally retires she records a few minutes of video for her Facebook community.
She shows them a shallow cardboard box of food, explaining that a tent has been erected at the truck stop, and that it’s full of donated supplies. The truckers were encouraged to take whatever they wanted. Additionally, members of the public had approached them directly.
“I’ve been emptying bags,” says Sally. “They’ve been bringing bags of stuff to our truck, steady…I don’t think we’ll go hungry real soon. There’s sandwiches. And muffins. And apples. And chips. And veggies. Juice boxes. And more sandwiches…It’s crazy.” In the video we also see canned soda, bottled water, and a selection of home-baked pastries.
This food is important. It’s tangible, concrete evidence of tremendous grassroots support. While people bring food to community picnics, they don’t normally gather at truck stops in the dark, in the dead of winter, to feed total strangers. This behaviour alone makes the Freedom Convoy socially and historically significant.
“This stuff has all been donated,” Sally tells us on the video. “This is absolutely phenomenal. It’s insane. You just can’t even imagine it without seeing it. If it wouldn’t have been so cold I would have pulled out my camera and videoed” the tent.
“No, we won’t go hungry,” she adds. “And I definitely won’t lose weight like I thought I would.”
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Donna Laframboise writes a daily blog at ThankYouTruckers.substack.com. It is a first draft of her upcoming book that focuses on interviews with Freedom Convoy truckers. She is a former National Post and Toronto Star columnist, and a former Vice President of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
