Close to 42,000 pounds of food collected from Target Hunger campaign

There was a slight decrease in food donations from 2018, when 48,000 pounds were collected. However, both food banks showed their gratitude for the community help.

“We’re thankful for everyone who participated by putting a bag out on their doorstep, and are equally grateful to the community volunteers for organizing the event and recruiting the people and resources necessary to complete all of the work on our behalf,” said Maral Kiani Tari, the executive director of the Lethbridge Food Bank, in the release.

“We couldn’t pull off a food drive of this size without the support of the community and the hundreds of volunteers that pitched in to help.”

Danielle McIntyre, the executive director of Interfaith Food Bank, told Lethbridge News Now on Tuesday that their original goal was to collect 100,000 pounds of food, but she noted that 42,000 pounds will help the food banks through two weeks.

“You can look at that two ways. One the one side, one can per person in Lethbridge would be the equivalent to 100,000 pounds of food and most people tend to give quite a bit more than one can when it does come in. The other side, you can look at it and say, half the people in Lethbridge believe this is a big deal and they are helping us address the hunger needs in our community,” she said.

“Summertime tends to be that time of year where the donations drop off because people aren’t thinking as much about others in need at this time of year, whereas they do so much more during that Thanksgiving to Christmas period.”

The food banks thanked the following in the release:

· The Target Hunger Planning Committee – comprised of representatives from both food banks as well as community members.

· Kush Patel and Yamin Raza, students in the Serving Communities Intern Program (SCIP), who helped oversee collection route maps, coordinated volunteers and promoted the event.

· Ivan Djomegni, Aldrin Azucena and Don Castillo, SCIP students who helped develop and maintain the online sign-up tool, which saved the food banks thousands of dollars in software development costs.

· All major grocers that assisted with the campaign and served as food drop-off locations: Safeway (two locations), Save-on-Foods (two locations), Sobey’s Uplands, Real Canadian Superstore, Real Canadian Wholesale Club, Troy’s No Frills and Simon’s No Frills.

· Volunteer Lethbridge, Lethbridge Public Library, Servus Sports Centre and Exhibition Park for helping to promote the event through Hot Spot locations.

· Staples for providing printing services.

· Local groups and agencies that hosted events to spread the word about Target Hunger, including the Lethbridge Public Library Food for Fines program and Westminster Community Pool Opening Day.

· The Movie Mill, with promotions.

The food banks also thanked everyone who volunteered their time to collect and sort the donations, and to residents who donated.

McIntyre said donations are still being accepted as part of Target Hunger.

“We have several events that are still coming up where people will be collecting this month. For example, we have the grand opening of the Westminster Pool over on the north side this coming Saturday (June 15), they’ll be collecting on behalf of Target Hunger and then of course, anyone who had forgotten their (donation collection bag) or didn’t put it out or didn’t get one is more than welcome to drop-off at any of our alternate locations,” she said.

”So, you can go to any major grocery store or of course, bring your donations down to the food bank and they’ll be included in the grand total for Target Hunger.”

Volunteers gathering donation bags (Photo courtesy Danielle McIntyre)

McIntyre added that the great thing about the food bank is that “it’s never too late to give”.

“We have people who need to eat every day … it’s something that people should keep in the forefront of their minds that it’s never too late to give and we try to make it easy for you.”

Nearly $3500 has been collected from the Target Hunger campaign so far in financial contributions, bringing the final value of community contributions to more than $112,000 this year.

“When we can engage the whole community and get a bag out to every household in town, if it doesn’t bring a donation in at this time of year, it will bring one in later because people start to know what they can do about hunger in our community,” McIntyre said.

Financial donations can be made through the Target Hunger website. Anyone interested in volunteering can contact the local food banks.

Students looking to get involved can check out the Serving Communities Intern Program website.

by Justin Goulet

Close to 42,000 pounds of food collected from Target Hunger campaign

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