Cranbrook’s annual food drive was touted as a massive success, bringing in over 20,000 pounds of food donations in a single day.
Julie Rose, Cranbrook Food Bank executive director, is grateful for the community’s generosity.
“This is a new record and more than double the amount we saw last year,” said Rose. “It was incredible, just truckload after truckload of food coming in. Our hearts are overflowing with gratitude for all this support.”
Rose said the donations did not stop after just one day.
“We have probably seen close to 1,000 pounds of food still coming in since Saturday,” said Rose.
The donations came at a good time for the food bank.
“Just prior to the food drive, our bays in our warehouse were pretty near empty,” said Rose. “We were at a critical low for our perishables, so it could not have come at a better time.”
Donation drives such as this can help free up the Food Bank’s resources for other items.
“With a large influx of non-perishables, it allows us to focus more of our budget dollars on purchasing fresh things like milk, produce, eggs and meat,” said Rose.
“We like to give fresh ingredients to our clients, so when we have such a wonderful outpouring from the community through the food drive, we’re able to allocate more of our budget to fresh foods.”
The Food Bank has seen a significant jump in use since 2021.
Since we moved into our new building, we’ve seen a 65 per cent increase in clients who have accessed our service,” said Rose. “We currently have over 2,700 active clients.”
The Cranbrook Food Bank also services neighbouring communities such as Moyie, Wasa and Wardner.
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