Sault Ste. Marie, as we all know, is a caring community.
And now, a huge Canadian financial institution, based in the impersonal streets of Toronto’s big-city financial nerve centre, has taken notice and rewarded a Sault woman for her feeding of needy local children during the COVID-19 shutdown of schools.
Angela Caputo, The Breakfast Pig’s chef/owner/operator, was recently recognized by TD Canada Trust through that institution’s ‘TD Thanks You’ program with a gift in the form of new patio furniture and equipment for her popular Sault eatery, located at 265 Bruce St.
Caputo and The Breakfast Pig was one of only six recipients of such recognition by TD Canada Trust in all of North America.
“We started the ‘feed the children’ program in March, right after the world was shut down (including schools in the Sault and across Ontario by COVID-19 restrictions),” Angela said, speaking to SooToday.
“I was seeing all these teachers online talking about how many kids there were that relied on the breakfast programs at school so heavily. Some of these kids were being fed twice a day at school and teachers were concerned about how these kids were going to eat moving forward.”
With a well-established eatery under her ownership and with a strong sense of community, Angela felt there was something she could do to help.
“I got in touch with the John Howard Society and they tagged in on the project. They sent me a few social workers and in week one I agreed to pay for the whole thing myself, to get everyone on board to agree to allow me into the geared to income housing, so I put together a hundred lunches and went door to door and delivered lunches to the kids,” Angela said.
Invigorated by the experience, Angela put out an invitation to the community for help with donations in order to carry on with the program.
“Within two days we raised just over $10,000 toward the project. Sault Ste. Marie responded in this massive way. It was a really positive thing and allowed the program some longevity.”
“We started doing four housing complexes and feeding 250 kids each week. We wanted to make sure the money was going to be put to good use. That lasted from March to the end of June. We stopped the program when school ended, and when we were allowed to reopen the restaurant (Angela’s restaurant having operated solely through takeout during the COVID shutdown).”
Angela said ‘feed the children’ kept her spirits up while trying to keep her business running during the shutdown.
Meanwhile, someone from TD Canada Trust was watching Angela’s compassionate work.
“One of our local employees at TD at Cambrian Mall, Ingrid Atkinson, nominated me for the program ‘TD Thanks You.’ Ingrid showed up here one day and said ‘TD recognizes small business owners who are doing good things. Would you be willing to talk to our executives?’ So I spoke once in a conference call to a couple of people (high ranking TD Canada Trust officials) and they said ‘we may contact you in a week or two just to discuss it further’ and I thought nothing of it.”
The TD Canada Trust execs told Angela they were considering sending a film crew to Sault Ste. Marie to inspire their own employees regarding local charities.
Then, they sent a crew to film Angela cooking and speaking to what the community means to her, cameras rolling while volunteer drivers loaded their vehicles with Breakfast Pig food and delivering it to local children.
“Ingrid was here and gave a speech about ‘TD applauds your commitment to your community’ and we wanted to reward everything you’ve done.’”
More than just delivery of a speech, a TD truck arrived Aug. 11, packed with new patio furniture for The Breakfast Pig.
Angela was surprised, to say the least.
“I was crying. It was a very emotional time. I didn’t do any of this for that kind of recognition. It was super overwhelming to realize that people were paying attention to what I was doing.”
Angela’s family was on hand, aware of the surprise for Angela two weeks prior.
“Two transports were parked at the Beer Store (nearby, on Bruce Street), Winmar got off the truck and installed the whole patio, they ripped out the old patio I had and gifted me with a new patio,” she smiled.
TD presented Angela with four metal gazebos, three picnic tables, 12 heaters (allowing her to keep her patio open for customers for about a month once the weather turns cooler), 10 tables, 24 chairs and an indoor herb garden.
“It’s a beautiful gift."
“I was extremely grateful to TD. I feel grateful to be working with an institution that is actually giving back. To me, community is everything, and sometimes we look at these big corporations as though they don’t care about it, but they do. It was really nice to see that,” Angela said.
“It’s really nice to have gotten this gift which I’m able to share with our customers.”
As far as her sense of community goes, Angela said “(it’s important to) build everyone up to a level where they’re feeling good about themselves, kids are fed well, giving people a fair chance, coming together for whoever needs help.”
“I think I’m a little bit of a champion for Sault Ste. Marie. I do my best to support local farmers, local businesses...I believe that we are often overlooked in the north, overlooked by the province, overlooked by the federal government (in terms of funding for various programs and projects). We’re left here to fend for ourselves, though we pay high taxes. I think the more we can keep our money within our own circle and support one another, the better we’ll see this whole community grow,” said Angela, no stranger as a helper to several local causes, such as ARCH for example.
“It helps me to recognize that the work that I’m doing is not small. Sometimes you feel when you’re doing this stuff maybe nobody’s noticing or caring, but they are, and people appreciate it.”
Angela and her staff cooked lunches, delivered to needy children by Breakfast Pig staff and John Howard Society volunteer drivers.
“They loved it. We had a certain house we would go to...one little boy would wait for us at the window. When we got to his house he would be banging on the window. He was so sweet. I’ve made pretty good lasting relationships with the parents. It was nice.”
The ‘feed the children’ program is suspended for now, but Angela said, moving forward, “if there is a need for it, I would definitely be more than willing to help raise the funds if there was a need for food...never say never.”