Partnering with Food Bank

There is hope of raising more than $10,000 by Whistler’s Food Bank by this Thanksgiving.  There is a record demand and donations just can’t seem to keep up with it.

The supplies at the Food Bank are exhausted and this is forcing Whistler’s Community Services Society to dig deep into reserves and buy $40,000 worth of food. With 2,200 clients in dire need of groceries, this is record breaking.

Whistler Community Services, Pique Newsmagazine and the Farmers Market have become partners in an attempt to raise $10,000 at least, as well as food donations by this October.

The manager of Whistler’s Farmers Market, Chris Quinlan is hoping they can exceed that mark. He sees it as a partnership that makes sense because the Farmers Market is all about food as is the Food Bank.

$500 to start the kick-off has been donated by Pique Newsmagazine and they are handing out shopping bags to anyone who makes a donation at the market.

The Newsmagazine’s tent at the Farmers Market is where everything will be collected, along with Pique magazine’s Function Junction office, the Re-Use-It Centre, and the office of Whistler Community Centre at Spruce Grove.

If your donation is $25 or more, you will get a tax receipt.

Although it’s not usual, fresh food will also be accepted as a donation. A volunteer is picking up the food from Pique’s tent at the market each day.
Whistler Food Bank was operating only two Mondays a month, but now it’s every Monday, omitting any holidays.

The executive director for the Whistler Community Services Society states that people have stood in the cold for up to five hours to get the food they need. There was a need to offer more days for food pick up in order to prevent this from happening again.

There sadly, has also been a need to reduce what is inside the bags because the society is going into debt over the amount of food.  The money to supply the food comes from generous donations and the Society’s revenues. Every small bit helps and is very much appreciated for those in need.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 9th, 2011 at 6:32 am and is filed under Whistler Village. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.