Posts with the Daily Bread Food Bank tag

Barris Beat

Finding the holiday spirit

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Family Christmas tree hunting party. Dec. 17, 2023.

We’d wandered to the back of the back-40 last Sunday. Almost nobody was there. A bunch of the grandkids ran around as if it were the last day of school. My younger daughter and I walked in silence, scanning the horizon. She spotted one. I spotted one. Then my grandsons figured they’d found a tree. Eventually, I stopped and surveyed a likely candidate. “What do you think of this one?”

“Sure, Popou,” some of the kids said (calling me the Greek word for granddad).

But I waited for my older daughter’s youngest son to look and pass judgement. He smiled and said, “That’s good.” His mom, who usually decides, couldn’t join us this time, so the final OK fell to him.

“Let the holidays begin!” I said. (more…)

Barris Beat

A tradition of helping the hungry

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Joe English (centre) and his Lancaster crew volunteered for the Dutch Food Drops in April 1945.

He didn’t have to do it. Still in an RCAF uniform and duty-bound to King and Country in April 1945, nevertheless Joe English stepped up. He and his entire Lancaster crew had completed the requisite 30 operations, a full tour, over occupied Europe. They all had done their bit in the war, but Joe and his entire crew volunteered for one more flight.

Operation Manna delivered 10,000 tons of food to starving Dutch civilians.

“The Germans say they’ll permit bombers to fly in low over the big Dutch cities – Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, the Hague,” their RAF commanders told them. “People are starving there. They need us to drop tons of food.”

“As far as I was concerned,” Joe said, “it was about improving people’s lives.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Gift of art

Written by Ted Barris on . 2 Comments
Stained-glass artists Sue Parkinson presents her work as a gift.

A few months ago, my wife and I were invited to a meeting in downtown Toronto. We thought it was about planning our European battlefield tour for next spring. So, we arrived at the Merit Travel agency on schedule. We were then escorted through a rabbit’s warren of office cubicles and into a boardroom and introduced to a member of the agency staff whom we didn’t know.

“This is Sue Parkinson,” we were told. “She’s got something for you.”

(more…)