Alec grew up on a farm in Middlesex County and has been involved in agriculture all his life. He currently lives on the home farm with his wife Tina. They have four married children and six grandchildren. He manages the broiler chicken side of a large family farm in our service area which also has a large cash crop operation. He has been employed on this farm for forty plus years. He has also been active in the church for many years serving in various roles. Alec has been a part of the Ailsa Craig and Area Foodbank since 2009.

Jan Watt earned a BA in Social Sciences from the University of Western Ontario and is a qualified counsellor, holding certification in CTRT, a behaviour management technique. After her retirement as a Food Service Supervisor in a senior’s residence, she combined her love of travelling with her desire to “give back” by making yearly trips to the mountains of Nicaragua, where she teaches nutrition and sanitary cooking practices in schools and to local women’s groups.

Jan belongs to a number of community and church organizations and holds executive positions in most of them. She is the mother of 3 and the proud grandmother of 5. Jan lives in Middlesex Centre and joined the Board of the Ailsa Craig Food Bank in 2003. She has been serving as Board Secretary since 2005.

Colleen Pavlech joined the Ailsa Craig and Area Food Bank Board in 2016. She has a keen interest in her community and enjoys volunteering when possible. She became involved because she wanted to learn more about the work of the Food Bank and to give back to her community. She hopes that she will be able to help to make a positive difference.

Colleen retired from Community Living where she worked as a volunteer co-ordinator. She enjoys working with people and was involved for many years with the volunteers at the Ailsa Craig and Area Quilt Festival. She is a spinner and weaver and enjoys gardening. Colleen and her husband Joseph live in Ailsa Craig. They have 2 daughters and 5 grandchildren.

Marilyn was born and raised on a farm and after marriage continued living on a farm in East Williams township where she raised beef cattle, pigs and cash crops. She did work in London at London Life until her oldest daughter was born. Her husband and Marilyn raised five children and now also have 10 grandchildren. They retired and moved to Parkhill in 2001 where they still live today.

She was very involved with minor hockey in Parkhill and also with the figure skating club serving as president of both clubs at times while her children were participating. Marilyn have always had an interest in helping out others who have less in life than her, and welcomed the chance to join the board of the food bank in 2017. While on the board, she enjoyed being able to provide a few information sessions dealing with cooking and gardening. She is looking forward to doing more in the future.

Ian resides in Middlesex Centre. He grew up in Thunder Bay, did his BSc (’68) in Biophysics at Western and PhD at the University of London. He did research and teaching at Western until his retirement in 2010. Ian has been breeding and showing Irish Terriers for nearly 30 years and lives on ten acres between Lobo and Poplar Hill. Ian is recording secretary of the Poplar Hill Lions, serves on the Hillbilly Float and Barbeque committees and has Ontario food handling certification. Through the Lions club he became involved as a volunteer at the food bank in 2017 where his main contribution has been transportation, sorting and storage of food donations. Ian accepted a position on the board of the ACAFBTS in 2020.

Pamela resides in North Middlesex and joined the board of directors in June of 2024.