The residents of the Comox Valley overwhelmingly supported the local edition of the BC Thanksgiving Food Drive (BCTFD) Saturday, Sept. 17. In the Comox Valley, the BCTFD event included more than 56 volunteers providing over 400 hours of service to the community. They visited more than 4,000 homes, and collected more than 8,700 pounds of non-perishable food for the Comox Valley Food Bank with a value of over $20,000.
The local food bank shelves need this boost at this time of year as more and more of the community is relying on this resource for their daily food. Those who do, come from the most vulnerable segment of this community. Over half of all the households that rely on the food banks are families with children; half these again are headed by single parents.
In total, almost 40 per cent of the recipients of the food bank’s assistance are under the age of 18.
Other vulnerable groups include low-wage earners, those with inadequate employment and people on disability income assistance.
This province-wide, annual project collected more than 428,000 pounds of food in this, its sixth year, for the over 50 community food banks in their local areas.
“A big thank you to the Comox valley community, this year. We were very appreciative of the turnout of volunteers and our corporate sponsors,” said Jeff Hampton, president of the Comox Valley Food Bank. “We are still sorting food and it is a definite boost to the food bank shelves as the donations usually dry up by the end of August and early-September. It is definitely very well timed.”
The local BCTFD event in the Comox Valley was sponsored by several organizations, including Quality Foods and Slegg Lumber, ABC Printing, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.