With fall around the corner, volunteers are gearing up for the annual Thanksgiving food drive, a cross-B.C. effort where people go door-to-door, collecting donations for the food bank.
"It's always a good experience to get out there and volunteer and help with needy families. It can be really uplifting," said Jason Nagy, a Burnaby resident and coordinator for the local portion of the food drive. "There are a lot families that need assistance with food and other means, but food mainly."
In Burnaby, volunteers will be leaving collection bags on people's doorsteps on Wednesday, Sept. 18 with a flyer that includes instructions on how to donate. People can then fill up the bag with non-perishable items and leave it on their doorstep for the volunteers to collect on Saturday, Sept. 21.
"We don't knock on doors," Nagy said. "They just leave it outside, and our volunteers will pick them up."
The volunteers, backed by local businesses, are mostly families from Burnaby's Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. All of the food goes to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society, which redistributes the donations to people in need.
The Burnaby church started the annual drive in 2009, but collection efforts have since spread to more than 50 communities across B.C. Last year in Burnaby, more than 200 people spent 900 hours volunteering for the cause. They visited 8,300 homes and collected 8,700 pounds of food, equivalent to roughly 570 bags.
The church is at 5280 Kincaid St., and people who don't receive a donation bag at their door are welcome to drop off donations at the church.
For more information, go to bctfooddrive.org.
