Spare a Square fills gap for Thanksgiving food drive
Organizers are preparing for the second round of the Spare a Square food drive on Saturday to help Kawartha Food Share replenish its food stocks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
When the first Spare a Square food drive happened at the start of the pandemic in March, more than 23,000 pounds of food for food banks was donated, said Kawartha Food Share general manager Ashlee Aitken, at a time when hoarding was happening in grocery stores.
“That food drive was absolutely incredible,” she said. “We collected over 23,000 pounds in one morning and at that time, the shelves at the grocery stores were kind of being hoarded and the same thing was essentially happening at our food banks.”
Kawartha Food Share is the central warehouse for food banks and food programs in the city and county.
People came from all over the city to help volunteer to collect food for the March food drive to help collect and sort it.
“The last food drive we had about 200 volunteers on the road collecting food and probably about 15 of us back at the warehouse making sure we are getting the donations out of people’s vehicles, into the warehouse and sorted inside,” she said. At the time a lot of the food banks had shut down due to the pandemic, so distribution was difficult, said broadcaster Megan Murphy, co-ordinator of the food drive.
Since then the food banks have reopened, Murphy said.
While there have been community initiatives to help collect food for the community since then, she said, Spare a Square is being held for a second time because Kawartha Food Share couldn’t run the
food drive that usually takes place this time of year for Thanksgiving.
“This one, in particular, is starting again because normally there is a Thanksgiving food
drive,” she said. “But it couldn’t go on as planned this year to keep everyone safe, usually they collect about 15,000
pounds of food over Thanksgiving, so this is sort of to help offset that loss they are going to need going into the colder months.”
You never know what to expect when it comes to the food drives, Aitken said.
“The community support is absolutely amazing, we are always going into a food drive not knowing what the outcome will be,” Aitken said.
“Every single time, we are just absolutely blown away by the amount of people showing their support and I don’t expect this to be any different. We have so many people reaching out to us since we did the first food drive back in March asking when we are doing it again.”
Kawartha Food Share is now low on some items.
“We would appreciate any and all non-perishable food items,” she said. “We are low on tuna, pasta sauce, kraft dinner and peanut butter, but all donations are greatly appreciated.”
Things for babies, such as formula and diapers, and feminine hygiene products are also needed, Murphy said.
“They need things as well for babies, so baby formula, diapers, feminine hygiene products, any non-perishable fruits, vegetables, rice, those kinds of things,” Murphy said. “Things that people can be stretched to go along way and can feed families and that kids like to eat.”
People are asked to put their donations out on their front stoops and porches after 8 a.m. Saturday with a smiley face on it to help volunteers.
People are also encouraged to donate money, Murphy said.
“For every dollar donated, Kawartha Food Share can purchase up to six dollars of food,” she said. “If people want to make a donation, they can do that where we can make sure they get it at KFS and also you can make a donation online at kawarthafoodshare.com.”