The Rotary Club of Grande Prairie’s annual Community Food Drive is set to get underway for another year.
The food drive has been an ongoing endeavour for “just over 30 years” and serves as a significant driver for local food banks especially heading into the holiday season.
Food Bank Chair Lori Pollock says while excitement is high among everyone involved, the harsh reality of just how dire the need for food is in the city cannot be ignored.
“Sadly, the need is greater than it ever has been, we’re seeing a solid, actually dramatic increase in the need just with the economic times that so many are experiencing,” she says.
Last Christmas, Salvation Army Captain Peter Kim shared a harrowing statistic, saying one in five Grande Prairie families are facing food insecurity and are accessing food banks as a result. Additionally, Pollock says this year nearly 50 per cent of residents who are accessing food banks are children and seniors.
“It’s really hard to wrap our heads around, I don’t even really know how to put it into words, it’s so sad,” she says. “It just breaks my heart to think somebody’s going hungry and doesn’t have enough to eat.”
In an effort to combat the growing need in the Swan City, the food drive will be accepting financial donations to allow more flexibility for the Salvation Army to reach their targets.
“It goes a long way in supplementing some of the items that they maybe didn’t get or couldn’t get through the annual food bank drive,” Pollock says.
Still, with so many charities and non-profits asking the public for donations, Pollock says her organization has continually had to look at diversifying options for residents to help out.
“That’s definitely the concern, we were very wary of that, even last year in the food drive, we know that people are struggling and more people are struggling than they were last year.”
Despite her concerns, Pollock maintains that folks should only ever give what they can. She says volunteering, having donations ready at the door, and participating in any way is just as valuable to the drive.
“All we can do is what we’ve always done, we let people know what the need is, share with them how great it is, and if people can give, then they will, and whatever we get, we’ll be grateful for because it’ll make a meal for somebody,” she says.
The drive is scheduled for September 12th, and residents are encouraged to have their donations ready for volunteers who will be going door to door.
