Thousands step up and donate to 20th annual Calgary City-Wide Food Drive

Volunteers dove head-first into the city to collect donations from thousands for the 20th annual Calgary Food Bank drive on Saturday.

Throughout the morning, donations were collected from various locations across the city and dropped at several points, which were then gathered in big boxes to be taken to the Calgary Food Bank.

“We’ve got folks canvassing the city, picking up these donations in their cars. A day like today takes about 8,000 volunteer hands to help us do this work; it’s just phenomenal,” said Melissa From, the president of the Calgary Food Bank.

“It is one of our largest food drives that happens in our country every year.”

She says this is a big day for the charity organization as it aims to break last year’s record of donations of almost half a million pounds of food.

This is considering over 13 million pounds of food will be distributed in just one year.

“There was probably a point in time where the food that would be collected from an initiative like this, would last us well through the year, the reality is when you are feeding over 750 households a day, it doesn’t last quite as long,” From said.

In past years, between 400,000 and 500,000 pounds of food has been donated to the City-Wide Food Drive, which is critical to maintaining operations throughout the holiday season.

From adds that the most needed items are canned fruits and vegetables, canned proteins, baby cereal, baby formula and diapers.

For those who missed the city-wide drive on Saturday, donations can also be made online.

Every dollar donated to the Calgary food bank allows it to distribute $3.50 worth of food to someone in need.