Whether your gift wrapping looks like a work of art or is heavy on the tape, the London Food Bank is hoping you'll consider donating a few hours of your time next week for an initiative that exchanges food for gift wrapping.
Roughly 120 volunteers are needed to staff a food bank run gift wrapping station at Westmount Shopping Centre from December 18 to December 23. The station allows Londoners to drop off a non-perishable food item or cash donation in exchange for having a volunteer wrap their Christmas presents.
"As we know most people end up doing last minute shopping in the week leading to Christmas," said Mike Bloxam, community harvest coordinator with the London Food Bank. "This saves people some time at home. They can bring home some wrapped presents and don't have to squirrel away their bag without anyone seeing. At the same time it benefits the food bank so we can use those donations to keep our operation running."
The food bank run gift wrapping station has steadily gained popularity over the past few years, increasing the demand for volunteers.
"Last year, we got really busy at times, especially on the weekend. There were times we were short on volunteers because there were so many people coming to get their gifts wrapped," said Glen Pearson, food bank co-executive director. "So the more volunteers we can get the better."
Wrapping paper, ribbons, tape, and other supplies are provided to the volunteers, as the bulk of the items are donated to the food bank for the initiative.
Bloxam hopes to get enough volunteers this year to have four people on a shift and four shifts per day.
"We will be staffing people at the desk from 9:30am when the mall opens, right through to 9pm when the mall closes," said Bloxam.
Londoners who want to have a gift wrapped can provide a donation of either food or cash at the wrapping station. All donations will be used to support the roughly 3,500 families who rely on the food bank's services each month.
For more information or to volunteer click here.