Halifax Young Entrepreneur Gives Back to the Community with Heart to Heart Pantry | The Canadian News

Taya Skeete started her own tie dye business during the pandemic, not anticipating how wildly successful it would prove.

Together with her parents and other family members, the 12-year-old makes more than 100 T-shirts a week on average.

They typically spend their weekends making shirts, hair ties, dog bandanas, hats, and everything else, all in their signature style: tie dye.

Taya’s mother, Jasalynn Skeete, says Taya has always been kind and generous and spent her March break a year delivering bottled water and granola bars to the homeless on Spring Garden Road, all purchased with her own money.

That’s when Taya came up with the idea that she wanted to give back to her community in Halifax’s North End in an even bigger way. She noticed little book pantries popping up around town and decided she wanted to start one for lunch, to help with food insecurity.

“I saw some videos on YouTube of people feeding the homeless and it inspired me to want to go and feed the people. And then once I started my business, I wanted to start the food pantry. “She said.

Her family joined her in running her pantry. His grandfather made the building, while his aunt designed and painted them.

The heart-to-heart pantry started three weeks ago. Taya restocks food weekly with non-perishable food, diapers, and toiletries.

Jasalynn says she is very proud of Taya’s vitality, kindness, and generosity.

“She just makes me want to be a better person, I like to do more in every way,” he said.

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The pantry is located in Murray Warrington Park on Brunswick Street.

“My motto is to give what you can and take what you need. It means that if you need food or something like that, you can come and bring what you need and if you know you want to help the community, you can give what you can, ”said Taya.

Taya told Global News that while she’s still undecided about what she wants to do when she grows up, career-wise, she knows that she always wants to give back.

“I’ll probably start something bigger than a pantry. I’m not sure yet, but I’ll make sure to give back to the community, ”he said.