Food Drive Continues As Renters Donate, Volunteers Sort

Posted April 13, 2009 12:00 pm.

This article is more than 5 years old.

This year, there was a big push to get apartment dwellers involved with Daily Bread Food Bank’s spring drive.

It started on April 8, when Breakfast Television took over a local grocery store.

Frank Ferragine and Jennifer Valentyne were on hand as Metro at 3003 Danforth Ave. started accepting non-perishable food and monetary donations from the public.

It continued throughout Easter weekend as volunteers helped sort through truckloads of donations at Daily Bread headquarters.

Over 150 people made their way to 191 New Toronto St. to go through the thousands of pounds of food you donated – and we’re not done yet.

“It’s one of our busiest weekends because the need is so great,” explained Gail Nyberg, the executive director of Daily Bread.

“The spring drive brings in the food that takes us through the summer…We started off slow but we’re at about 180,000 pounds of food. Our goal is 250,000 and we have five more days.”

Now, renters and condo owners are getting involved. The Greater Toronto Apartment Association (GTAA) will kick off their annual Spring Hope Food Drive on April 21. Last year, they collected 164,000 pounds of food – and they think they can do even better this time.

“So much momentum has been built over the past 10 years, and the tremendous success of last year’s Drive underscored what can be accomplished when small gestures on the part of many are made,” outlined Brad Butt, GTAA President and CEO, in a press release.

“With the increasing demands being placed on food banks and a deepening recession, it is even more important this year that our rental housing providers, staff and residents band together and support our local food banks. If even just one or two items could be donated by each of our residents, I know we could surpass last year’s collection amount.”

In 2008, over 900,000 people in the GTA relied on the donated food. This year, the typical food bank user may look a little bit different.

“The new client is someone who just lost their job, has never used the food bank before. I think it’s very hard for a number of people to do it, to ask for help but if you need the food you need to come,” urged Nyberg.

The most needed items include: