Londoners heading to the grocery store to stock up for Easter dinner are being asked to pick up a few extra non-perishables for the London Food Bank.
The 31st annual Spring Food Drive kicked off on Friday at the food bank’s warehouse at 926 Leathorne St. Roughly 60,000 donation bags will be delivered in Saturday’s London Free Press and next week's The Londoner, while another 40,000 will be handed out by volunteers at local grocery stores. Londoners are asked to fill the bags with non-perishables and drop them off at grocery stores or London fire halls.
"A couple of the kinds of items that we are focusing on this year include healthier options like whole wheat pasta and baby items like formula, diapers, and baby food," said Jane Roy, co-executive director of the food bank. "About 8% of the folks who come to us have kids 2-years-old and under. So that is one of the keys in terms of the types of donations we are asking people to donate."
Throughout the first two months of 2018, an average of 3,350 families have relied on the food bank’s services monthly.
"The Spring Food Drive is incredibly important to make sure that we feed those folks and to get the message out to the public that their help is consistently needed," said Roy.
Demand for the food bank has remained steady for several years, fluctuating by only a percentage point or two, according to Food Bank Co-Executive Director Glen Pearson.
"We have seen over the years this trend where the numbers go up a bit, then they go down a bit but they are not going away. So it seems to us that hunger has now become a permanent part of our landscape," said Pearson. "We have to get our head around the problem so the food bank has been working with other agencies to look at data and stats and Jane has been working hard here, along with others from the staff, to produce a hunger count for London that would give us an accurate reflection for all the agencies of what we are facing."
Roughly 60% of all food donated will be divided up among 25 other social agencies and programs in the city, with only the remaining 40% going to stock food bank shelves.
Last year, a total of 68,033 lbs of food was collected through the spring food drive.
The food drive continues until April 2.
