Every Wednesday morning, Stratford shoppers can find Norman Kehl, 91, at grocery stores across the city.
He isn’t picking up food for himself. He is picking up food for a local food bank, the Stratford House of Blessing.
Kehl is the oldest and longest running volunteer with the food bank, having lent a hand to the organization since near its inception – when his late-wife Florence started it.
“She was the driving force of the House of Blessing,” Kehl said, reminiscing as he drove from the Food Basics on Ontario Street around the corner to Zehrs. “She felt that we need to help these unfortunate people. Some of them have gotten into a situation that wasn’t necessarily their fault at all. You don’t blame. You help them out.”
The Stratford House of Blessing, then known as Operation Blessing, started in 1983 by Florence. She and Kehl were married for 56 years, before Florence passed away six years ago.
Originally, Operation Blessing was run under the 700 Club, a U.S.-based Christian group that oversaw a number of Operation Blessings, including many in Canada.
Eventually, the 700 Club shut down all Operation Blessings in Canada except for two: the Stratford and Hamilton chapters. Kehl said that was because Stratford and Hamilton were self-sufficient and did not draw funds from the club.
After running on its own for a little while, Florence noticed that everyone was calling it the House of Blessing, rather than Operation Blessings, and the name stuck.
Originally, the House of Blessing operated out of a little white house on the corner of Wellington Street and St. David’s Street, the house which became the House of Blessing’s iconic roof logo.
The organization moved into its current location on Erie Street in 2002, going from 900 sq. ft. to 9,000 sq. ft.
From its inception, Kehl assisted with the food bank as the secretary treasurer and “doing all of the books,” as he characterized it. He really got involved as a volunteer after retiring in 1989.
Kehl said that he still volunteers after all these years because it's good for him at his age to get out and have some structure.
He also said that it feels good to give back to the community, especially when the regulars you see walking through the doors month after month stop showing up.
“That’s the good part,” Kehl laughed. “You help these people get on their feet again.”
Kehl has only been delivering donations to the House of Blessing recently and so doesn’t see that face-to-face side anymore, but he still feels the need through his work.
On this particular Wednesday, there weren’t many donations in Food Basics or Zehrs but there were bags and bags of donations in the bin at the No Frills across the city, the penultimate stop for Kehl.
From there, he delivers them to headquarters, assisting Chris, the warehouse manager, in offloading them onto a cart.
The organization has changed quite a bit, Kehl said, from Florence’s original vision. They gave away furniture and clothing right from the get-go, but had to forgo the furniture venture due to sanitary reasons.
The House of Blessing gave away clothes until the COVID-19 pandemic, when that was shut down. The organization has not resumed that program, but Chris said that there is so much demand for food right now, that has taken precedence.
In 2023, the House of Blessing had a record year. There were 15,393 food visits, 192,624 pounds of food collected, 230,895 meals distributed, and 4,628 volunteer hours logged.
And the organization depends upon those hours as a non-profit organization. There are a few employed positions with the organization, but many of the people helping the food bank are volunteers.
With that said, Kehl said that anyone able to volunteer, health-wise, should consider it. Not only does volunteering benefit the community, but it is a two-way relationship with the community benefiting you.
“Take a look at your lifestyle,” Kehl advised. “It gets you out and gets you meeting other people so you’re not just stuck.”
If anyone is interested in joining the team, information can be found on the House of Blessing’s website.
