Citytv launches fall food drive

As people across the GTA prepare for Thanksgiving, the Daily Bread Food Bank continues to struggle to meet the high demand during the harvest season and throughout the year.

Citytv launched its Fall Food Drive Tuesday at the Loblaws at 380 The East Mall in Etobicoke, near Highway 427 and Burnamthorpe Road. The Breakfast Television crew kicked off the effort at 5:30 a.m. and the CityNews team took over at 9:30 a.m.

The goal of Daily Bread’s autumn effort is to collect $400,000 and about 181,000 kilograms of food by Oct. 14.

“What’s happening [Wednesday] is going to help us reach our goal,” Daily Bread executive director Gail Nyberg said.

“With cash donations, we’re able to buy food at a wholesale price and get more of it – we always want food, but money is great too,” she added.

Citytv viewers once again demonstrated their generosity. On Wednesday, viewers donated more than $14,000 and 12,000 lbs of food.

Last year there were nearly 800,000 client visits at Daily Bread and its 170 member agencies — 36 per cent of those clients are children. Food banks across the GTA are seeing 130,000 more client visits a year than before the recession hit three years ago.

Jeff Jare began volunteering at Daily Bread after he had to rely on the service when he experienced some tough financial times.

“I had no idea this world existed because I came from a fairly good financial situation,” he said. “It’s a whole new world and it really opened my eyes to a lot of things.”

Here’s a list of some of the non-perishable foods Daily Bread needs:

•   stew and soup
•   peanut butter
•   dried lentils and black beans
•   canned fish or meat
•   rice
•   pasta
•   canned fruit and vegetable
•   baby food and formula
•   tomato sauce

Daily Bread is also asking for cash donations.

If you didn’t make it out to the Citytv Fall Food Drive in person, you can always make a donation to Daily Bread online here, on the phone by calling 416-203-0050, or you can mail them a cheque at:

Development Department at Daily Bread Food Bank
191 New Toronto Street,
Toronto, ON M8V 2E7.

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