Local food banks are hoping fortunate families will help feed more than 7,000 people this coming Thanksgiving.
Next week, B.C. Thanksgiving Food Drive volunteers will be dropping off donation bags to Greater Victoria households.
Those same bags will be picked up – hopefully packed full of non-perishable goods – from participating families on Sept. 15 starting at 9:30 a.m.
“We decided it was important that we have a day of service in our community, that we make as much of an effort as possible to connect to members of our community through service,” said Deborah Nohr, the food drive’s Victoria-area organizer.
She said the Mustard Seed food bank is currently at its lowest level in 20 years, and she hopes the Thanksgiving drive will help ease that crisis. Last year, the drive brought in $1,700 in food throughout Greater Victoria.
“The goal is to continue to grow every year,” Nohr said.
A volunteer initiative put on by Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in conjunction with several local business sponsors, the food drive collected 250,000 pounds of food in 50 towns and cities across B.C. last year.
Local donations will stock food banks in Victoria, Sidney, Goldstream and on Salt Spring Island.