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7 | The IFP -H alton H ills | T hursday,M ay 7,2020 theifp.ca • Truck Accessories • Upholstery • Heavy Equipment Glass •Window Tinting 354 Guelph Street, Georgetown 905-873-1655 Wehandleall insurance work. We handle all insurance work. A Halton Hills small business is giving back to nurses working hard for lo- cal residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. House of Jude, a family business specializing in handmade Turkish tex- tiles, is gifting a towel in each customer's name to nurses across the GTA with the purchase of al- most anything from its on- line store. "This is an opportunity for us and for our custom- ers to express gratitude to those putting themselves at risk every day for the safety of all of us," said House of Jude founder Kristina Maimonis. The Jude's Nurses cam- paign started from a text exchange between Maimo- nis and customer Alison Rodrigues, who's a critical care nurse at Mississauga's Trillium hospital. At a time when nurses are constant- ly washing their hands and wearing medical masks, the local mother realized she could help make their lives a bit easier with her Turkish towels, which are extremely soft and gentle on skin. The two have now teamed up, with Rodrigues distributing the gifted tow- els to her fellow nurses at the hospitals in George- town and Milton, along with Trillium and Toronto General. "Receiving a to- ken of appreciation, be it small or big, or even just a 'thank you' reminds us that our service and duty is not going unnoticed," said Ro- drigues. "It gives us the sense that we are not in this fight alone, and the com- munity is by our side rec- ognizing the critical role we are playing in this fight. This is truly what nurses need to see now more than ever before." For more information on the Jude's Nurses cam- paign, visit www.houseof- jude.ca/pages/judesnurs- es. NEWS House of Jude founder Kristina Maimonis with her two children, Jude (left) and Arie. House of Jude photo TOWEL COMPANY GIFTING PRODUCTS TO FRONT-LINE NURSES MELANIE HENNESSEY mhennessey@ metroland.com When restaurants be- gan closing, the orders stopped coming in. So what do you do if you've already started growing tens of thousands of pounds of mushrooms to fulfil the expected orders? "You work so hard, all the time," said W&T Mush- room's Natalie Jaroszew- ski, whose farm between Acton and Rockwood pro- duces an average of 540,000 pounds of mushrooms a year. "We didn't want them to go to waste." So Jaroszewski started packaging two-pound bags. She enlisted the help of a neighbour Jason Farmer, whose printing business, Branded Marketing and Promo, has been forced to close, to print labels with a mushroom recipe. Then Jaroszewski start- ed the deliveries to her neighbours. "We were playing nicky, nicky nine doors. Knocking on doors and running away," she said. "Sometimes people would catch us and they would want to pay us, but the only payment we wanted was for them to eat them and enjoy them." Jaroszewski saw it as a way to thank the neigh- bours who had helped to fight stop the Hidden Quar- ry proposal, which, despite their efforts, received ap- proval in February. Knowing that fresh pro- duce is sometimes hard to come by for food banks, W&T also packaged and sent mushrooms to three food banks, including the Acton Foodshare. Jaros- zewski said the farm plans to make another donation to the food banks. The farm is still sending mushrooms to the food ter- minal in Toronto to supply grocery stores, but has had to scale back its production by 50 per cent, largely be- cause of restaurant clo- sures. Faced with a large surplus of mushrooms after restaurant closures, W&T Mushroom, located between Acton and Rockwood, packaged mushrooms for its neighbours and local food banks. W&T Mushroom photo ACTON FOODSHARE RECEIVES DONATION FROM LOCAL MUSHROOM FARM HERB GARBUTT hgarbutt@metroland.com