THUNDER BAY - A food drive that is the first of its kind in Thunder Bay is proving to be a success and helping to fill the fridges and freezers at two local organizations with some much needed items.
This weekend, the Regional Food Distribution Association and Thunder Bay Shelter House held a meat and dairy food drive outside the Real Canadian Superstore.
On Saturday alone, more than 700 kilograms of meat and dairy products were collected.
“It went really well,” said Amber Prairie, development officer with Shelter House. “We had a really awesome response from the community. We had a lot of good quality meat and dairy being donated.”
Food items collected included ribs, ground beef, chicken, bacon, eggs, milk, margarine and butter. All donated food will be split between Shelter House and the RFDA. Shelter House serves up to 700 meals a day and the meat and dairy food drive will provide more variety in the kinds of meals that can be offered.
Brendan Carlin, community services manager with the RFDA, said local foodbanks do not receive these types of products very often, so seeing the success of this food drive was a pleasant surprise.
“I didn’t really know what to expect,” he said. “We had never done anything like this before. I think it is higher than what we were expecting. In these two days we are going to be over a ton, maybe close to a ton and a half. And that’s fantastic.”
“When you do something like this for the first time, you hope for the best and you learn from it,” Prairie added. “I think this is a great response. Thunder Bay always comes out and always supports. I think we were both pleasantly surprised by the response.”
With the success of the first meat and dairy food drive, Carlin said it may be something they look at doing more frequently.
“We have been talking about it,” he said. “Whether it’s yearly or otherwise. These are items we don’t often get and it’s really valuable for Shelter House and our members as well.”
The meat and dairy food drive continues until 4 p.m. on Sunday. Donations can always be made directly to the RFDA or Shelter House, however, meat products must be accompanied by a receipt to show it has recently been purchased.
