Submitted/Okotoks Food Bank Association
The annual Community Food Drive is returning to Okotoks and High River this week.
Each year, volunteers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints deliver bags to houses across the Foothills. Residents fill the bags with food bank donations and leave them on their front porches for later collection.
This year's Okotoks event will see bags delivered on Wednesday and Thursday (Sept. 17 and 18) and collected on Saturday, Sept. 20.
Locals are asked to have their bags out by 9 a.m., when volunteers will begin collecting. Donors are also asked not to tie the bags more than once so they can be reused.
Last year's food drive collected over 30,000 pounds of food for the Okotoks Food Bank. The event has been running for more than 20 years.
"Thankfully, there are so many people in the community that are willing to pitch in and help out, and this is one of the things that we can do that supports the whole community and gets everybody involved," said Lorena Engen with the LDS church. "One pound makes a big difference. If everybody can throw in one pound of food, it just makes a big difference with that total at the end."
There are a few items the Okotoks Food Bank is especially in need of.
"They need things like canned meat and tuna, canned fruit, canned baked beans, spaghetti sauce, baby and children's snacks, personal hygiene items like deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes, things like that," said Engen.
If any donation bags are missed, they can be dropped off directly at the food bank.