MHS Pallets is making a difference in Canada

By Neil Armstrong

Mickardo Hines is very proud that over the last six months, MHS Pallets, the company he started three years ago and for which he is president, has been certified by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to make pallets representing Canada across the world.

“It’s a blessing to be able to watch my baby kind of blossom. We’re heavy on giving back, not just pallets, we do training programs for youth and people from the diaspora,” he said, noting that the programs are offered for free.

Within minutes of receiving an award from the Jamaican Canadian Association for helping with its Hurricane Melissa relief effort by providing pallets for donated items, Hines was accepting another award from Ontario-based Helping Hands International for sponsoring a dinner project in Westmoreland, Jamaica, for families severely affected by the tropical cyclone.

He said the company tries to get those trained jobs onsite or qualified and recommended to other companies that it supplies pallets to hire them.

“We have equipment in our warehouse, nail guns, material handling equipment like forklifts and cranes, and we actually put them to good use outside the hours of our operation,” he said.

Having worked as the general manager at Sysco Food Services and in management at Toys “R” Us, Hines saw the effects of pallets accumulating on the dock causing injuries and other issues.

“I’ve always had a passion to solve that problem because I personally was facing that issue. We thought let’s start a company that can collect these pallets, repurpose them and get them back to the warehouses that they belong,” said Hines, noting that they had to get into asset management.

They bought trucks and trailers and dropped them off at warehouses free of cost. “We thought that the pallet is actually the asset. Once we can get it out of the warehouse we can find places where we can get a second home for these pallets.”

Over time they acquired a second facility in Mississauga where they are repairing and building pallets.

Michelle McKenzie-Dolly, who is from Kew Park in Westmoreland and lives in the Greater Toronto Area, approached Hines asking for support for families across rural farming communities in the parish.

As someone who is also from Savanna-la-Mar in Westmoreland, he was receptive to the idea and MHS Pallets became the major sponsor for the Eastern Westmoreland Communities Hurricane Melissa Relief Sunday Dinner Project.

McKenzie-Dolly also approached Helping Hands International, a registered charitable organisation in Canada, to become involved. It partnered with local leaders to coordinate relief efforts.

With funding from MHS Pallets and other donors, the Sunday Dinner Project delivered an average of 100 hot meals each week, from immediately after the hurricane to New Years Day, reaching vulnerable children, elderly residents, and households whose livelihoods were disrupted in Kew Park, Rat Trap, Lamb’s River, Bethel Town, and surrounding areas.

“That was a proud moment for me to be in the position to be able to give back,” said Hines, whose family was also affected by the hurricane. Some of the businesses he works with made donations toward the dinner project.

McKenzie-Dolly is grateful for the help of friends Donnette Sommerville Mills and Angella Higgins Cormack who coordinated efforts in Jamaica and Tanika Baker who worked alongside her in Canada to make the project possible