The Greater Vancouver Food Bank’s first-ever citywide donation drive pulled in more than 40,000 pounds of food to help feed people who are hungry.
The drive covered Burnaby, New Westminster, Vancouver and North Vancouver – the four municipalities in the food bank’s catchment area.
“While we didn’t meet our ambitious target, what I can say is a day ago we didn’t have 42,000 pounds of food in our warehouse waiting to be sorted,” said Ariela Friedmann, the food bank’s communications director. “We appreciate the community’s support. This is such a win.”
The drive was held on Saturday, Sept. 17. Burnaby residents donated 15,217 pounds of food, and the Save-On-Foods on Kingsway served as headquarters for the drive.
“There was a lot of community excitement; people saw the food bank there, and they were coming in,” Friedmann said. “I think we did a great community-driven effort for our first food drive ever.”
Save-On-Foods pitched in with pre-assembled bags of the food bank’s most-needed items. Shoppers could buy one to donate and add their own selection of perishable items.
But that was just one donation stream. Roughly 600 volunteers from the B.C. Thanksgiving Drive helped by leaving 38,000 donation bags on people’s doorsteps. They returned days later to collect the goods.
“The food will go to support the 26,500 people we help every week,” Friedmann said.
In all, 42,000 pounds will feed an estimated 2,100 people weekly for one year.
The Greater Vancouver Food Bank distributes roughly four million pounds of food annually to Burnaby, New Westminster, Vancouver and the North Shore.
The food bank organized the citywide drive to coincide with the kickoff for Hunger Awareness Week, which runs from Sept. 19 to 23.
“The reality is hunger awareness is not a week; it is a reality every day, 365 days a year,” Friedmann said.
The end of summer is also a time when the food bank’s shelves “thin out,” Friedmann added.
Anyone who wants to donate but missed the drive can contribute by visiting the food bank’s website at www.foodbank.bc.ca and check out the list of most-needed items. Canned forms of protein, including beans, tuna, salmon and chicken, are most in demand, Friedmann said.
“We don’t need more candy and more cookies, we need healthy, nutritious food,” Friedmann said.
Donating money is usually the best way to help, Friedmann explained, as the food bank can buy direct and in large volumes, which stretched each dollar to three times its value.
