SYDNEY, N.S. — Patrick (Paddy) McNeil has thrown a few people in the back of a police paddy wagon during his 32 years with the RCMP.
But for the past five weeks, the retired police officer, who is originally from Glace Bay, has been running a different type of wagon and helping stock shelves at the Pasadena Community Food Bank in his Newfoundland community.
“In the middle of March, after St. Paddy’s Day, we realized everything was shutting down and … and we thought well, what about the food bank? How is the food bank going to survive and the people who need this?” said McNeil, who has lived in Newfoundland since 1977.
“So I called the food bank, I’m not a food bank member, I called the food bank and pitched them my idea.”
His idea was Paddy’s Wagon Pick-Up, which would collect donations of food or money by appointment, from 1-4 p.m. every Wednesday, as the community deals with health restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
So with the help of his wife Sandra, McNeil started Paddy’s Wagon on March 25 and response has been good.
“We’re doing really, really well. I get about 32 contacts to pick up food. I think one day I had 62,” McNeil said.
“People are just so generous. There was one man, who passed me an envelope with his shovel … Inside it was $500. I told him 'you didn’t have to do that' … He said to me, 'No, you don’t have to be doing what you’re doing.'”
The money McNeil has collected over the five weeks he’s been running Paddy's Wagon is used to buy items the food bank needs and McNeil said he makes sure store managers know why he’s buying in bulk.
“And when I go on my senior hour to the shops, I usually go in with my vest on, my food bank vest, I made it myself, so they know I’m not there to hoard or gouge,” he said.
“All the food we collect today, doesn’t go into the food bank until the following week. All for hygiene and cleanliness, trying to defeat the virus.”
People in the village of 3,500 residents are finding ways to show their thanks to McNeil by writing notes on the bags he picks up from their homes or leaving pictures, like the drawing of a dinosaur one seven-year-old boy made him.
But for McNeil, he doesn’t need thanks. It’s just another way the coal miner’s son can help the community where he lives.
