Mona Forsyth is being remembered as a woman who was committed to helping people.
Forsyth, 95, passed away peacefully on Nov. 17 at Abbotsford Hospital. Forsyth was the coordinator of the New Westminster food bank for more than 20 years.
“She just wanted to give back to the community and be part of it,” said son Michael Watt. “It made her feel good knowing she could help people who were less fortunate than her. That was my mom. She had a big, big heart.”
In recognition of her efforts with the local food bank, Forsyth was named New Westminster’s Citizen of the Year in 2009. She also received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2013.
Craig Edwards, operations director with the Greater Vancouver Food Bank, said Forsyth dedicated most of her life to helping people, both at the New Westminster Food Bank and in her everyday life.
“She ran the New West Food Bank forever. It was actually called Mona’s Food Bank,” he said in an email to the Record. “She was a pillar of the community.”
Claude LeDoux is the coordinator of the local Plant A Row/Grow A Row program, which encourages gardeners to plant extra vegetables and fruits to be donated to the local food bank.
“Her commitment to helping people in need, I thought was extremely amazing,” he said. “She was extremely dedicated and would go to the nth degree to get food. She would drive around picking up food all the time from different places.”
Forsyth worked with the Plant A Row program to try and cater to some of the culinary needs of a diverse commrunty.
“The people were so surprised to see something that was traditional of their cultures,” LeDoux said. “She would talk to them and always try and have different foods and obtain different things.”
LeDoux said Forsyth’s commitment was to the people who relied on the food bank for assistance.
“It wasn’t about the food bank – it was about the people, always,” he said. “She would go out of her way to collect food. The food bank does not collect food on a Sunday. She would always meet us on Sunday to take what little or what lot of food we had. She would always go there and open up the facility.”
When Forsyth wasn’t busy running the food bank, she enjoyed visiting her old stomping grounds at Trout Lake in Vancouver.
“Every summer she would be down at Trout Lake religiously almost daily,” Watt said. “She loved it down there.”
After living in New Westminster for about 30 years, Forsyth moved into an extending living facility in Abbotsford last year after taking a fall.
“She was well-liked and loved wherever she went. She would bend over backwards to help people – that was just her nature,” Watt said. “Awesome mom. The best mom. She stood by me through thick and thin.”
At Forsyth’s request, no service is planned.
“If anybody wants to do anything, ask them to support your local food bank,” Watt said. “Mom was a huge supporter of that.”
