If you’ve lived in Barrie for any period of time, you probably know Mike Rudkin’s face from the side of one of his delivery trucks.
But what a lot of people may not know is that his commitment to his community goes much further than simply selling beds and mattresses.
Rudkin and his wife, Krista, have owned Mike The Mattress Guy, located on Mapleview Drive West, for 15 years. And while customers may be aware of their ability to avoid a local delivery cost in exchange for a donation to the Barrie Food Bank or Women and Children's Shelter of Barrie, what they may not know is their commitment to helping others goes way beyond that.
Every week, the couple also hosts a group of friends to make sandwiches for the Busby Centre, an initiative they started five years ago to help the local homeless shelter.
“It was actually my mother who was doing it with her friends. They were making a loaf a week," he told BarrieToday. "Then she mentioned it to us, so initially my wife and I started to do a couple of loaves a week."
About 18 months later, friends began to join in to help, making close to 400 sandwiches every week.
The group of approximately 10 friends gathers every Thursday evening to make sandwiches, which are then delivered to the Mulcaster Street shelter on Fridays and distributed to people in need.
“It’s kind of wonderful because … they come here with enthusiasm. Everybody has got an idea about what should go into a sandwich and how it will be the best,” Rudkin said. “They don’t just slap them together — they want each one to be something special to whoever opens it.”
As both residents and local business owners, he says they feel it’s important to support a variety of different programs that help to give those in need a hand up.
“They’re my neighbours. I’m there to look after them. Hopefully somebody would do it for me … so that’s it. You’re only as strong as your weakest link, so you have to help those down below.”
Despite knowing how much the help is needed, Rudkin said he hates the fact they even have to do it.
“Food banks, all that, I wish they’d all just go away, but the simple matter is that they can’t. It’s very important to look after them,” he said.
While one sandwich may not make a significant difference to the bigger issue of homelessness and food insecurity, Rudkin believes by stepping up and helping in whatever way a person can, it can at least change the course of one person’s day.
“You never know what helping somebody for half an hour is going to (mean) to them," he said.
