Holiday drop off

The number of families who use one of the city’s food distribution banks has risen 25 per cent since the last year, says the chair of the Thunder Bay Food Bank

The annual Thunder Bay Transit Santa Bus wrapped up its weeklong food drive on Saturday. The campaign raised nearly 1,300 pounds of nonperishable food for the Thunder Bay Food Bank. The campaign started about 16 years ago when a Thunder Bay Transit worker offered his bus as a means to collect food donations.

Gordie Rowe, chair of the Thunder Bay Food Bank, said the campaigned raised much more than last year since the drive lasted a week instead of two days.

"The food donated is just going to be an awesome help to us in our efforts to try and feed these people," Rowe said. "We do an annual March food count and we report that to Food Banks Canada. This past March when we recorded it, our numbers were up. The year before that was also an increase. We’re seeing a continuous increase all the time."

The original intention of the Food Bank was to act as a supplement for people on social assistance. Over the years, the role of the Food Bank has changed and more people come for help and even depend upon the food given out, he said.

The holiday season doesn’t seem to affect the number of people who come to the Food Bank, he said. More than 190 people used the Food Bank in November, which also included families, he said.

Rowe noticed that more families seem to use the food bank compared to previous years, which is why the food collected by Thunder Bay Transit helps so much, he said.

In addition to the food collected by the Santa Bus, Amalgamated Transit Union president Charlie Brown presented Rowe with a check for $500 to help in the cause. 

The transit worker who started Santa Bus has since retired and a new volunteer donned the bright red suit this year, he said.

But Santa wasn’t the only change.

Brown said they decided to extend the food drive from two days to a week to make it less confusing for people.

"I think in the past, some of the public got confused sometimes," Brown said. "They would find out that the Santa Bus was there but was only out for two days. We decided to extend the program and I think it has worked out remarkably well."

He added they would consider having the Santa Bus run for a week again next year.

Jon Hendel, transit, planning and marketing analyst for the City of Thunder Bay said the amount of food raised was equivalent to more than $3,000.

"We raised 1,290 pounds of food, which I think it is just unbelievable," Hendel said.