Calgary Food Bank gets a little help from 8K volunteers as it goes on city-wide food drive

Volunteers collect non-perishable food donations from thousands of Calgary homes to help fill the shelves at the Calgary Food Bank. Jacqueline Wilson reports.

The Calgary Food Bank went on a city-wide food drive, Saturday and got a lot of helping hands from Calgarians.

Volunteers collected non-perishable food donations from the doorsteps of thousands of homes across the city to help stock Calgary Food Bank shelves until the holidays.

Among those volunteers was Kimberly Johnson and her family, who have volunteered in every city-wide food drive since 2014.

Johnson said the appeal of volunteering was that it was as good for her and her family as it was for the food bank.

“We love to be part of it,” Johnson said. “First off, it’s a lot of fun, but more importantly, it’s just an opportunity to give back to the community and help people that may be going through a tough time right now.

“We’ve been really blessed and have surplus,” Johnson said, “and anyone in the city who’s able to can just give a little bit back to help people that need a little help right now.”

Calgary Food Bank president and CEO Melissa From said Saturday was a big one for her organization.

“This is by far our largest food drive at the Calgary Food Bank that is happening today,” From said.

“For frame of reference, in past years, we have brought in as much as half a million to 600,000 pounds of food in a single day just through this initiative.

“You know, I think in the 21 years that we’ve been doing this food drive, there was probably a point in time where that was enough to really get us through the year.

“As it stands today, we’re distributing over 15 million pounds of food a year,” she added, “so this is going to last us a good long time, and it’s certainly helping to fill up those shelves that were empty in our warehouse -- but it’s definitely not going to get us through the year.”

From said the food bank supports 800 families a day with food support -- with demand at an all-time high.

“In our history, the demand has never been greater,” she said. “And I mean, the great news is we’re here to do what we do, and the even greater news is that our community is obviously supporting us, because we just saw those trucks come in and they were full of food.”

From said volunteers are the glue that holds the food bank together.

“An initiative like this would never happen if it were not for the volunteers behind this work,” she said. “Over the course of the last week and a half, we’ve had folks putting those bags and door tags on doorknobs in the city, and then today, driving throughout the city and picking it all up, and then getting it here, and folks in the warehouse getting it on the shelves all in the city wide.

“Food Drive Initiative takes over 8,000 volunteers to get this done.”

From said that it’s still possible to donate to the food drive.

“They can easily go to calgaryfoodbank.com and find ways to give back,” she said, “whether it’s through time, talent or treasure. ”