Fill the Truck event helps Pictou West Food Bank
Elsie MacDonald hopes volunteers at the Pictou West Food Bank will be busy stocking shelves next week.
The longtime volunteer says the shelves of the Pictou West bank are a little bare, but after a Fill the Truck Food Drive Friday in Pictou, she expects items will be in good supply.
“It will be wonderful,” she said. “I heard they were doing pretty good.”
Fill the Truck is hosted by local volunteers as well as community partners the Pictou County RCMP, Fulton’s Trucking and Sobeys and food was being collected all day outside of Sobeys in Pictou.
Volunteer Kent Corbett said the drive was a huge success last year with the truck box being filled two grocery bags high from front to back.
MacDonald said the donation comes at a time when the need for its services is increasing.
“We have seen quite a bit of an increase in our numbers in the last three or four months,” she said.
She said the Pictou West bank is fortunate to have steady donations come in from churches throughout the year as well as from other regular contributors, but the extra boost during the holiday season helps in the New Year when things become a bit quieter.
“The first of the year, donations really slow down. I guess people are catching up on their own,” she said.
The Pictou West Food Bank also accepts cash donations, which can be used to purchase goods such as milk, bread and meat. It is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 1:30 to 3 p.m. in the basement of the town hall on Water Street, Pictou. Donations can be dropped at this time.