Residents, businesses and organizations opened their hearts and wallets to support people in Ottawa during the CTV Your Morning Ottawa Food Drive. The annual food drive on CTV Your Morning Ottawa Friday morning raised $380,110.59. “Just a reminder of how incredible this community is,” Rachael Wilson, Ottawa Food Bank CEO, said during the food drive. “The community has been generous again to help feed families and individuals right across our city.” The CTV Your Morning Ottawa Food Drive collected non-perishable items and money to support the Ottawa Food Bank heading into the holiday season and into 2026. “It is incredible to see such generosity and kindness for our community, having all the partners come out and make generous donations,” Wilson said. For some, the fundraiser is a testament to community cooperation and generosity. “There’s lots of big donations that come in but to be perfectly honest, it’s the smaller donations from our viewers that are really the heartwarming ones and the important ones because that shows me the community is rallying around to support everyone,” said Peter Angione, Director of News and Information Programming for Bell Media Ottawa. “It’s incredible,” said CTV Your Morning Ottawa co-host Melissa Lamb. “It was a cold morning. I think with the windchill this morning it was -19, but as I kept on mentioning, when your heart is warm from so many people giving back your entire body is warm and I don’t think any of us felt the cold.” The donations included: Stopping the stigma With the cost of living on the rise, food is often the first thing that people cut back on, says Ottawa Food Bank CEO Rachael Wilson. “People can’t miss their rent or their utilities without significant consequences, so food is often the first thing to go,” Wilson told CTV Your Morning Ottawa on Thursday. “We see that a lot with parents as well, who will go without so that their children have food.” Line Côté is an Ottawa Food Bank resident expert and member of the equiTABLE program. She says the food bank has been supporting her for four years. “The experience is difficult, often humbling and fraught in stigmatization, but the food bank has been there to support me when I needed it the most and continues to support me so that I have access to fresh and healthy food and so that I can make ends meet at the end of the month,” she said. The equiTABLE is an advocacy group comprised of Ottawa residents who have lived experience accessing food banks. “We strive to push for better living wages, fresh and healthy food and to erase the stigma that is often associated with us asking for help,” said Côté. “We came together about two years ago, adopted our name about a year ago and we work together to advocate for fresh and healthy food. Food is a human right.” The Ottawa Food Bank has 70 partner agencies running 93 programs across the city. “This food drive counts,” said Bell Media’s Angione. “It matters more and more to people to help put food on the table.” Wilson says food insecurity affects all corners of Ottawa. “There are food banks in every neighbourhood and, unfortunately, people think food insecurity isn’t an issue in their community, it really is. We’re seeing people from all communities, all neighbourhoods.” You can donate to the Ottawa Food Bank anytime at ottawafoodbank.ca,
