Food drive exceeds expectations
Posted By Damien Wood, Herald-Tribune Staff
Posted 4 months ago
Aside from a temporary glitch with a burnt-out forklift motor, Tuesday evening's food bank drive went off without a hitch, shattering last year's number by more than 30,000 items.
There are now 81,500 new boxes, bottles and cans in the Salvation Army food bank.
Last year saw about 50,000 items collected, which was itself a record. Normally about 28,000 or 29,000 would be expected.
Rotarian and food bank drive chairman Ken O'Shea was surprised to see the spike in donations last year, and even moreso this year.
"It just demonstrates the generosity of people in Grande Prairie. There were people who were literally giving bags and boxes of food," he said.
"I think sometimes people give more because of a recession. The people that are doing OK are more generous because they know other people are hurting," said Capt. Gord Taylor of the Salvation Army.
"And we had more trucks out than last year too, which means we got to more houses ... (I) think because of the recession too, more people are wanting to help as volunteers as well."
An estimated 500 volunteers came out to go door-to-door and collect non-perishables or to help sort as loaded vehicles returned.
O'Shea was also surprised the evening went as smoothly as it did.
"It ran really smooth. Other years we would get big rushes but this year it seemed to be more of an even flow," he said.
"I was expecting more of a mad, chaotic type of drop-off, but it just came in steady, all night."
A larger number of smaller nrighbourhood coverage maps were given out to volunteer teams this year.
As a result, it was the first time in the history of Grande Prairie's food bank drive where the entire city was covered, along with Sexsmith.
"You learn each year. You get a little better organized," said Taylor.
"We'll do it bigger and better next year. We'll do it," said O'Shea.
"On all the maps we had questionnaires about each route ... how many people were on (the route), the time it took them to do it ... that sort of thing."
The only snag this year came when the first load of food items was placed onto the forklift to get it up to the second floor of the Salvation Army food bank on 102 Street, and they ran into some mechanical issues.
The food is up there now, as well as in one of two trailers brought in to store the overflow.
"This will get us through until Christmas, which means we won't have to spend money on food - we can focus on doing other things," said Taylor.
damienw@bowesnet.com
