Demand is higher than ever at food banks across Southern Manitoba, but a group of Altona churches have banded together the past couple years to help out the best they can! This year is no exception; they are gearing up yet again to go door to door and pick up your non-perishables tomorrow! (May 7th).
Growing need met by growing generosity
Richard Bage is the pastor of the South Park Mennonite Brethren Church. He is one of a handful of pastors that are working together for this Spring Food Drive and commented on the growing need but also the community stepping up to meet that need, " You know that's the amazing thing about our community...my assumption was donations would go down. You know, food insecurity is on the rise, cost of everything is going on the rise, nobody's dollar goes nearly as far as it did 10 years ago.
All of that explains why there's more need at the food bank and my assumption was there would also be a correlation then of people giving less. But we have very much been able to, at a minimum, maintain what we usually get, if not more! It seems like yeah, people are aware of our realities. People know that things cost more, and it just seems like those that are in a place where they can give, more people are stepping up. People are generous, in spite of everything else going on, yeah, we still continue to collect a lot of food."
Non-perishables vs Monetary Donations
Richard touched on what kind of donations helps out the food bank more, non-perishables or monetary donations, in short, both! monetary donations get stretched farther by the food bank, but non-perishables fill the shelves night one, "So our grocery stores in town are great. They work very closely with our food bank. Give them, you know, deals on bulk foods that you and I are not going to get when we go to the till. Long story short, the food bank can stretch $20 at the grocery store, better than you or I can for sure. So yeah, if you're looking for what has the greatest impact? Absolutely monetary donations help them out further. They're able to stretch that dollar more than we can, again, because of that bulk pricing, but for those that don't want to do that, absolutely non-perishables, it fills up their shelves night 1."
How the Spring Food Drive works
Richard touched on the unique nature of the Spring Food Drive, "As soon as the weather turns, everybody's going for a walk, right. They're out watching their kids play baseball or their grandkids play soccer so the idea of knocking on doors, trying to find donations, yeah, was actually incredibly difficult. So we said, you know what? Leave them on the front door. Leave them in a bag. Whatever you want to do. And we will come and pick it up."
If you want to donate, leave your bag of non-perishables / monetary donations out on the front steps by 7:00pm, Wednesday May 7th and they hope to be all wrapped up by 9:00pm!
More than just Altona!
The Spring Food Drive will be swinging through each of the communities below:
- Altona
- Blumenort
- Neuhorst
- Rosetown
- Gretna
- Neubergthal
- Gnadenfeld
And of course, this entire Spring Food Drive is made possible by the many youth volunteers who go door to door picking up all these donations, there's a picture below of the entire volunteer force from the 2024 Food Drive.
Enjoy the entire conversation between organizer and pastor Richard Bage & CFAM Morning Show co-host Zack Driedger: