Turning beer into eggs: $5,000 from beer fest will provide a year of fresh eggs to The Table food bank

Main photo: (From left) Barb Stronach and Jodi Menard from The Table Soup Kitchen Foundation, Dan Gamble from The Gamble Farm, BIA Manager Morgan Richter, BIA Assistant Caroline Schat, Jeff Carter from Hunters Bay Radio, Ali Gamble from The Gamble Farm, and Joan Wager from the Downtown Huntsville BIA Board (Photo courtesy of the Downtown Huntsville BIA)

It’s not strange alchemy, but it’s magical nonetheless. This year’s successful Muskoka 2/4 Craft Beer Festival, hosted by the Downtown Huntsville BIA in partnership with Hunters Bay Radio, will turn some of its profits into eggs.

It’s a win-win idea that both supports a local charity—The Table Food Bank and in turn the people it supports—and a local business, The Gamble Farm.

“It was a very successful event,” said Morgan Richter, Downtown Huntsville BIA Manager. About 1,700 people attended the festival and bought approximately 12,000 beer tickets. That translated to an $18,000 profit.

Of those funds, $5,000 will be put into an event reserve, $5,000 will be contributed to the downtown streetscape project which is scheduled for 2021, and roughly $2,000 will be used to purchase picnic tables for River Mill Park.

The BIA also committed to donating a portion of proceeds from the event to a local charity. When talking the idea over with HBR and sponsor Dreams Becoming Reality, Richter said the idea of making a food-related impact rose to the top of the list.

“We decided it should have a long-lasting impact,” said Richter, adding that they considered buying equipment like fridges to donate to a local charity, but then thought that a year-long, local-food donation would be more impactful because it would support both the charity and members of the community as well as a local farmer. They selected The Table Food Bank as the charity and settled on eggs for the food because it’s a versatile source of protein. They reached out to The Gamble Farm in Port Sydney to see what they could do.

The result is 18,720 eggs—30 dozen per week— that will be delivered to The Table over the next year.

On Friday, members of the BIA presented a cheque to The Gamble Farm who in turn provided The Table with their first delivery of eggs.

(Above left) Jodi Menard, Ali Gamble and Barb Stronach with the first donation of eggs for The Table Food Bank; (above right) feathered friends are fun. (Photos courtesy of the Downtown Huntsville BIA)

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