The fourth annual B.C. Thanksgiving Food Drive takes place this weekend on the Saanich Peninsula.
The food drive, which is coordinated every year by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and others, saw about 8,000 donation bags dropped off at residences around the Peninsula this week which will be picked up tomorrow (Saturday) morning after 9:30 a.m. by volunteers.
Every single food item collected will be donated to the Sidney Lions Food Bank which serves over 1,200 clients on the Peninsula each month.
“We have 60 routes laid out and each route averages 100-175 houses,” explained Ted Murray, the coordinator for the Peninsula B.C. Thanksgiving Food Drive. “We dropped off the donation bags earlier in the week and we are expecting to collect around 22,000 pounds of food on Saturday,” he said.
Murray said in the first year of the food drive, the group collected 15,000 pounds of food.
“The numbers have risen each year we’ve done it as more and more people have become aware of it,” he said, adding that the volunteers who pick up the food see a response rate of about 30 per cent.
“We hope it grows again this year,” he said.
Anyone who didn’t get a bag dropped off at their home is encouraged to drop off their donations at the food bank in Sidney (in Iroquois Park).
“If anyone filled their bag and left it out but it didn’t get picked up, they can also call the number attached to the bag and someone will come pick it up that day,” he added.
The food drive, which takes place all over the province, ensures an influx of food into food banks during a particularly low time of year.
“From now until Christmas is one of the hardest times for food banks because many people don’t think about donating in the fall,” he said.
For more information on the drive visit bctfooddrive.org.
reporter@peninsulanewsreview.com