London Food Bank wraps up Spring Food Drive with slight decline in donations
The London Food Bank is wrapping up its Spring Food Drive and is calling this year's effort a success. However, the numbers aren't much of an improvement on previous campaigns.
"We're down a little bit in food, and we're up a little bit in money so overall it ends up being down a little bit just due to the fact that the food evaluation has gone up," explained Jane Roy, co-director of the food bank.
Despite the impact of inflation on donations, Roy said they are actually really pleased the public came out and supported those in need.
"This is what one can one bag looks like when we all participate and we all just do a little bit,” said Roy as she pointed to skids full of donations from this year’s Spring Food Drive.
As of Monday morning, 48,744 lbs of food and $81,242 in cash donations had been collected.
But with the cost of food being $3.52 a pound, that puts this year’s total so far below last year’s numbers.
With food insecurity on the rise, London Food Bank’s services are being used by more people than ever before and another accumulating cost is now boxes.
"When we first started the food bank, we didn’t pay for boxes or bags or anything like that. But obviously with the changes that have come, and the fact that we're so busy," explained Roy.
Over at the St. Thomas Elgin Food Bank, they have gone green.
"We fill carts like grocery carts, and when our clients have pre-ordered, we just take them down a little ramp and they in turn put them into their reusable bags or into their grocery bins that they may have," said Manager of Public Relations and Administration of the St. Thomas Elgin Food Bank, Karen M. McDade.
The London Food Bank serves more than 5,200 families per month, and ask users to bring their own boxes and bags if possible.
During the Spring Food Drive, the food bank collects food donations with donation bags available at grocery stores. The drive ran from Good Friday until April 1 this year.
"People come to the food bank as a year round thing, so when it comes to giving, now most of the grocery stores continue to have those bins,” said Roy.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Liberal MP says she's leaving politics over disrespectful dialogue, threats, misogyny
Liberal MP Pam Damoff says she won't run again in the next federal election, saying she has experienced misogyny, disrespectful dialogue in politics and threats to her life.
Concerns about Plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall Plexiglass barriers.
Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Ont. woman who faked pregnancy to defraud doulas arrested again on similar charges
Victims of a Brantford, Ont., woman who was sentenced to house arrest earlier this year for defrauding and deceiving doulas say they’re not surprised she’s been apprehended again on similar charges.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Construction begins on LGBTQ2S+ national monument in Ottawa
Shovels have hit the ground for constuction on Canada's LGBTQ2S+ national monument in Ottawa.
B.C. man awarded $5,000 in damages in first-of-it-kind intimate image case
In a first-of-its-kind case, a B.C. tribunal has ruled on a dispute involving the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, awarding damages and issuing orders that the photos be destroyed and taken offline.