Food bank aims for half a million pounds of food in City-Wide Food Drive
Posted Sep 16, 2017 8:28 am.
Last Updated Sep 16, 2017 8:37 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Half a million pounds of food in just one day. That’s the goal of the Calgary Food Bank’s 17th annual City-Wide Food Drive, which has volunteers picking up donations at doorsteps starting at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Earlier this week, the food bank delivered donation bags to homes around the city, in hopes that generous Calgarians can stuff them with non-perishable food items for those who are feeling a further strain on their wallets in the fall.
“Families that are the tipping point already, of poverty or are experiencing other crisis — school expenses, bussing, job changes, sickness — those things could come along and be a tipping point for a family that has unfortunately had to cut food out of the budget,” said spokesperson Shawna Ogston.
Demand isn’t as high as it was a year or two years ago, but there are still people using food bank services as a result of the recession.
“We’re pretty steady, we haven’t seen sharp increases that we did in the last couple of years because of the downturn in the economy. But we are still seeing a lot of families [and] individuals that have been affected by the economy, that unfortunately they’ve needed more than one flavour,” said Ogston.
The Calgary Food Bank’s most needed items are soup, juice and canned fruit.
