50,000 pounds of food collected through campaign
GOAL REMAINS AT 100,000 POUNDS
This year’s Target Hunger campaign has officially come to an end, however, donations are always needed to keep the shelves stocked at both the Interfaith Food Bank and Lethbridge Food Bank.
On Monday, the preliminary numbers were announced. This year residents contributed almost 51,000 pounds of food, about 8,000 shy of last year’s total.
“We’re always grateful that we get the outpouring of support that we do,” said Danielle McIntyre, executive director, Interfaith Food Bank. “Every year we hope that we’re going to get a little bit more than we did the last.”
But for the past few years, they’ve strived to reach their goal of 100,000 pounds of food.
“We still feel like it’s very realistic when you consider that we’re almost approaching 100,000 people in town and that one can per person, we’re really aiming for it,” said McIntyre.
“The reality of it is, 50,000 pounds of food is a lot of food and it will help us out significantly at a time when there’s not a lot of donations coming into the food bank.”
According to McIntyre, both local food banks process between 60,000 to 70,000 pounds of food every month.
“That helps to put it into perspective as to why we need to be out recruiting donations constantly,” she added.
The majority of donations the food bank receives are between Thanksgiving and Christmas, however, Food Banks Canada has reported that over 918,000 Canadians will be hungry this summer.
“Summer time tends to be a little bit more of a time that families tend to rely on the food bank.” The reason why, she said, is because often clients rely on school feeding programs.
“Of course as soon as school is over, those are done, too,” she said. “We want to make sure that every family has the ability to make sure those snacks and lunch foods are available for children when they’re at home while their parents are away at work.”
Bags are still being accepted and residents are reminded that donations are always needed.
Any missed bags or food donations can be dropped off at either food bank, or collection bins at local grocery stores.
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