The city is once again asking residents to say no to hunger by giving to the London Food Bank.
City officials and food bank staff and supporters gathered outside of the Real Canadian Superstore at 825 Oxford St. E for the launch of the 22nd annual London Cares Curb Hunger Food Drive on Wednesday.
Throughout the food drive’s nine-day run, residents can drop off non-perishable food donations to local grocery stores and London's 14 fire halls, or place them in a bag labelled "food bank" beside their blue box on their designated recycling day.
For the second year in a row, Londoners also have the option to plant a row of produce in their gardens to be donated to the food bank at harvest time. Roughly 2,800 lbs of fresh produce were donated through the Plant a Row - Grow a Row program during last year's drive.
Jay Stanford, the city's director of environment, fleet and solid waste, said one of the goals this year is to have more than 50 families sign up to grow a row of food.
"Londoners have traditionally been generous, not only for this food drive but all food drives. We think we will see that again this time," said Stanford. "I think it is really important to recognize that there are those in this community that need a helping hand and we are here to do that."
During last year's drive, 49,830 lbs of food were donated to the food bank, which serves an average of 3,360 families per month.
The Superstore was selected as the backdrop for the annual food drive kickoff as it is one of nine city grocers that has been participating in an on-going food rescue pilot project. Started roughly a year ago, the pilot sees participating grocery stores donate produce and bakery items to the food bank that would otherwise be sent to landfills in order to make room for new goods.
"For people coming to the food bank it is important for a couple of reasons. One is we do have more fresh things regularly, not just at harvest time," said Jane Roy, co-executive director of the London Food Bank. "What's great about this is the produce, the vegetables, in particular, those are key. There are other grocery stores doing this as well and some of those stores give meat and other things. All of those kinds of food that might be thrown out but are totally edible."
Superstore alone has diverted 70,000 lbs of fresh food from the dump by instead giving it to the food bank.
"We pick up from this store twice a week. The consistency of that makes a huge difference to people coming in," said Roy.
Londoners wanting to sign up for the grow a row program can do so by clicking here.
Curbside collection schedule:
- Friday, June 1 Zone F
- Monday, June 4 Zone A
- Tuesday, June 5 Zone B
- Wednesday, June 6 Zone C
- Thursday, June 7 Zone D
- Friday, June 8 Zone E
- Saturday, June 9 Donations still accepted at Fire Stations & local grocery stores