While the quantity of food donated by the communities of Huntsville and Lake of Bays through the Project Porchlight Food Drive on Wednesday is still being sorted, Krystal Fuller, Salvation Army Community Ministries Coordinator, described area residents as simply amazing.
She said with food prices being so high, so is the demand. “Our starting baseline this year was 350 for families we are assisting and we are almost at that capacity and we’ll probably go over that for sure,” she said, adding that the need has been progressively increasing since the pandemic. According to Food Banks Canada, food banks are facing more than a 75 per cent increase in demand since 2019 and more than 18 per cent of people in Canada are living with food insecurity. In March 2023, there were almost 1.9 million visits to food banks across the country.
Fuller said the increase in food insecurity locally is right in line with Food Banks Canada statistics. “Everything is up significantly,” she said, adding that the donations also seem to be a bit down. “Everybody is struggling so much for their own homes it’s so hard to give sometimes but our community is incredible,” she said, and that includes the volunteers who help collect and sort the food.
Judy Langston drops off her food donations at The Salvation Army on Thursday, December 7, 2023.
From left, Joe Standing, Huntsville OPP Constable Lindsey Turner and Kevin Newton were out patrolling and collecting food on Wednesday, December 6, 2023, during the Project Porchlight Food Drive.
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Thank you to the good people in our area. Your efforts are appreciated.
Thanks to all the Stephenson Lions & Port Sydney Firefighters who took part .Great job folks !