In the photo: Weekend truck driver Gabrielle Bray displays some of the 56,000 pounds of food collected on the weeknd during the 13th Rotary Food Drive.
With food banks throughout the country shutting down from lack of support, the people who run the Kamloops agency continue to marvel at the way the community rallies around it.
Bernadette Siracky, executive director of the Kamloops Food Bank, said “the food just flowed” during the 13th Rotary Food Drive on Saturday, Sept. 20.
At the end of the day, 56,000 pounds of food had been collected and will help keep the shelves stocked until Christmas.
In years past, Siracky said, the collection was housed in two storage areas but, with the completion of the addition to the Wilson Street site, volunteers can watch as the shelves fill up again.
“It brings a beautiful energy to our building,” she said.
A food bank in London, Ont., closed last year and one in Montreal has turned to grocery stores to help it stay in operation.
Many others are run only with volunteers.
The semi-annual drive in Kamloops — promoted by inserting yellow plastic collection bags in every copy of the Sept. 18 edition of Kamloops This Week — is a growing community event, Siracky said, with Rotarians out collecting the bags of food and an army of volunteers waiting for the service-club members to arrive at Interior Vault, where the collection, weighing and packing is done.
“People call us to volunteer,” Siracky said, noting this year’s crew included cadets, scouts, seniors, local politicians and people from Valley First Credit Union, Tenisci Piva accounting firm and NRI Distribution — a cross-section of the community.
Siracky said the drive itself is inclusive as anyone, from a toddler to a great-grandmother, can put a can into the bag to be collected.
She said the Kamloops agency is unique among food banks not only because it continues to thrive and serve a growing number of clients, but because it also provides food to 42 agencies to provide meals to people they help.
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