KAMLOOPS — Preparations are underway for the 20th Rotary Food Drive in Kamloops.
Volunteers are packing hampers and making room at the Kamloops Food Bank for the biannual drive scheduled for Saturday.
The Food Bank is hoping the city will be extra generous this time around.
“We’re hoping for 75,000 pounds,” said Executive Director Bernadette Siracky. “We’ve set a new goal this year and we’re hoping that people can help us meet that goal. The most we’ve ever received during a food drive is 60,000 pounds. It’s definitely stretching, but we need to fill our shelves to serve our clients.”
Kamloops residents are encouraged to gather hygiene items, pet food, baby food, and any other non-perishable food items and place them outside their homes by 9 a.m. Saturday for Rotarians to collect.
As with previous food drives, bright yellow food donation bags are distributed ahead of time, but the Food Bank is hoping to change that practice.
“We were feeling as though we were wanting to save our environment a little bit,” Siracky said. “We order 70,000 bags every year for food drives, and what we wanted to do was create something that was recyclable. So this year we’re going to have flyers delivered to everybody’s home, and we’re asking you just to attach that flyer to any bag, bin, or box that you already have at home and put it in a visible spot.”
Hundreds of volunteers show up at the Food Bank’s warehouse during the food drive, and Siracky says new volunteers are welcome.
“If you haven’t been here before on a food drive, please come,” she said. “You don’t need experience, you don’t need to sign up with us, come to the Food Bank at 171 Wilson Street, maybe about 11 a.m. on Saturday, and we would love to give you a job and have you a part of this energy that really is compassion in action.”
The Kamloops Food Bank serves 7,000 individuals a year, as well as 45 agencies that provide meals in the community. It’s all made possible by the generosity of Kamloops residents.
“I always say to people if you think that your one donation and your one bag doesn’t make a difference, you really need to see what it looks like when thousands of those bags come rolling in and hundreds of vehicles with hundreds of volunteers in one day,” Siracky said. “It does make a difference, it adds up to a huge difference, and the compassion and the kindness that is being sent with those donations is really second to none.”
