Volunteers collected 78,000 pounds of food during the 2023 Rotary Community Food Bank Drive. Grande Prairie Salvation Army Foodbank Executive Director Captain Peter Kim says that is equal to 39 tonnes of food, up from the 35 tonnes collected during the 2022 drive.
Kim says the support is helpful as the food bank continues to see a rise with “one in five, one in six, one in seven” people in Grande Prairie accessing the organization for help.
“The number of people who have been using the food bank has increased exponentially in the past two, three years, on the heels of COVID and currently due to the inflations.”
Other food drives in the community have brought in around 45 tonnes of food. Kim adds that the food bank is highly grateful for the donations.
“We also have our Christmas campaign [coming up], which is our five weeks of the year where we do our fundraising for the Salvation Army for the whole year’s worth of services that we provide.”
Kim says during this year’s Christmas campaign, the goal is $625,000, up from the $600,000 goal in 2022.
