The COVID-19 pandemic has done little to discourage local residents from helping their fellow Londoners by donating to a summer food drive.
The 24th annual London Cares Curb Hunger drive for the London Food Bank ran from June 3 to June 13 with a number of ways to donate, including online financial donations, leaving food in bins at participating grocery stores and growing fresh food in a garden.
Glen Pearson, a co-executive director at the London Food Bank said due to the ongoing pandemic, organizers didn't know what to expect. However, Londoners helped make 2020 the most successful year for the food drive since 2012, with almost 38,000 pounds of food donated and almost $70,000 worth of financial donations.
"[COVID-19] is a once in a generation event and what happened was that London gave as it never did before," said Pearson. "It really shows how good citizens are, how good companies are, in really wanting to help in that moment... I never expected to see this amount. It just makes me love my community. It's a great thing."
One major change to this year's London Cares drive was not having donations picked up at the curb on garbage and recycling pickup days.
Pearson said the decision to focus on other more convenient donation methods was likely a factor in the food drive's success this year.
"We were delightfully surprised," he said. "More and more people were using grocery store [drop off bins] or they were planting a row of vegetables in their backyard."
Pearson said there has been a significant reduction in the number of people currently seeking the help of the food bank since the COVID-19 pandemic began. He attributed the decline to the ongoing government assistance programs that have been helping many people across the country, including those who are out of work. However, he said he anticipates an influx of people in need once those assistance programs are no longer available.
"Many of the people I've talked to are not going to go back to work because their place [of work] has closed down. So I think our numbers are going to soar as soon as the government stimulus is gone," said Pearson.
