Port Colborne food drive hungry for items
As it does every year, Thanksgiving brought out the best in people, as individuals, schools and community groups, mindful of their good fortune, dig deep to donate food to Port Cares Reach Out Centre.
It’s an early autumn bump the food bank has come to count on and helps pick up the slack from the slower summer months when there is less coming in and, thankfully, slightly fewer people relying on their service.
But the bump doesn’t last. Not with winter on the way and with it, increased demand as people juggle their food budgets with the cost of heating and Christmas bills.
“It’s really a drop in the bucket,” said Amanda Upper, the Reach Out Centre’s supervisor.
Throughout the year, Port Cares serves about 1,200 individuals, 30 per cent of them children under the age of 18. During the winter months, about half the roster comes through their doors every month.
Fortunately, Port Cares can count on the community to give them an even bigger bump. On Saturday the community will again come together for the Port Colborne and Wainfleet Lions’ annual food drive.
Volunteers will be driving through the city picking up donations at the door and bringing them back to Christian Life Assembly, where food will be sorted before being taken to Port Cares.
Upper said last year the effort brought in some 13,500 kilograms of food — some years it’s been higher — and that the haul helps the food bank make it to spring.
“That 30,000 pounds we’re looking forward to receiving helps us with the staples that we really make last through the winter months,” she said.
Port Colborne Lions secretary George DeRuyte said the sheer size of the collection requires a small army of volunteers, a good many of them youth in scouting and girl guide troupes, hockey teams and high school students getting their community service hours.
“If we don’t have the volunteers we’re in trouble,” he said, adding the drive has been going on for more than 25 years.
“It’s been going on so many years, people already know what they’ve got to do.”
Along with donations of nonperishable food, volunteers will also be collecting cash for the agency. Upper said that through the arrangements they have with wholesalers and local businesses, they’re able to stretch the cash.
For example, she said, every month Port Cares distributes 240 school kits, which, at $10 a piece, each contain enough food for a child to have a healthy lunch each day of the week.
“I would challenge any parent out there to go out with $10 and get five days’ worth of healthy lunches,” she said.
The food drive, she said, is what makes it all possible; it’s their lifeline.
“Without it we would really struggle to put food on the shelf and meet the demand.”
In Port Colborne, citywide collection starts at 9 a.m., with the main collection hub at 484 Barrick Rd. People are to leave items on porches or doorsteps where they will be visible.
In Wainfleet, donations will be accepted during business hours until Friday and from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday at Meridian Credit Union on Highway 3.
Most needed items include: canned fruit, canned vegetables, canned meat, large juice bottles, peanut-free snacks, baby formula and baby food.
Cash or cheques payable to Port Cares will also be accepted.