EDITOR’S NOTE: For the next several weeks, this column will feature this year’s recipients of the Order of Collingwood and the Companion to the Order of Collingwood.
A life-long interest in feeding people started in her mother’s humble kitchen in Prescott.
For this week’s edition of People of Collingwood we spoke with Barbara Ann Sneyd, recipient of the Companion to the Order of Collingwood.
Q: For how long have you lived in Collingwood? If you weren't born in Collingwood, when did you move here and why?
A: I was raised in Prescott, Ont.
My family moved to Toronto when I was 16 years old, where I finished high school.
Q: Where did you go to school?
A: I went to the University of Toronto and graduated with an honours science degree in food sciences.
I moved to Collingwood in 1976 when my husband took a teaching position at the high school. At that time we had two young children whom we wished to raise in a small town.
Q: Are you retired? What did/do you do as a career?
A: In Toronto, I worked as the teaching dietitian at the Hospital for Sick Children.
In Collingwood, I worked in many places, but out of my field of nutrition.
When I came here, there wasn’t as much opportunity to make money being a dietitian. So I put that on the back shelf to do other things.
Q: Can you please outline your volunteer efforts, and your role within those efforts?
A: Over the years, I have volunteered in a variety of things such Girl Guides, Boy Scouts, Ski Safety patrol at Blue Mountain, the Collingwood General & Marine Hospital, on the board at the Housing Resource Centre and presently the food programs at Trinity United Church.
Q: What made you choose to lend your time to these causes in particular? Why are they important to you?
A: When I was a kid in Prescott, our house was fairly close to the railroad station. My mom’s brother, after he came back from the war, he rode the rails. He was [homeless] for a couple of years.
So, my house had a summer kitchen. The [homeless] would come to the back door. We didn’t have to advertise it. They knew.
My mother always fed them. I remember that as a kid. I think that’s where I got interested in feeding people who may not have as much.
She always hoped to see her brother at the door. He never came back. He had gone west.
Q: What’s your favourite food?
A: Chocolate. It’s not dietetic at all. (laughs)
Q: How did you learn you had been chosen as a recipient of the Companion to the Order of Collingwood? How did you feel when you heard you had been chosen?
A: I was absolutely gobsmacked. I had no idea. I got the order (in 2010), but I never thought there would be a follow-up. It’s so amazing.
In a time in our lives where we’re feeling so down after three years of isolation, it just made me so happy to think that people are that nice; and accepted what I did as something wonderful.
Q: Do you have other hobbies outside of your volunteer efforts, and what are they?
A: Most of my hobbies concentrate around domestic activities. I love to knit, sew and of course, cook. I no longer ski after breaking both legs.
Q: What does the future hold for you?
A: At my age, I think the future is probably now. However, I still have some ideas I am going to announce when they are more solid and well-researched.
For our feature People of Collingwood, we speak with interesting people who are either from or are contributing to the Collingwood community in some way, letting them tell their own stories in their own words. This feature runs on CollingwoodToday every weekend. If you’d like to nominate or suggest someone to be featured in People of Collingwood, email [email protected].
