THUNDER BAY -- Reino Pitkanen says he was blown away by the generosity of Thunder Bay residents this past weekend.
As the chair of the Thunder Bay Food Bank, he was hoping this year’s Santa Bus campaign would match last year’s total of 7,000 pounds.
Little did he know it would jump by 57 per cent – not to mention more than $2,000 in cash collected that will be used by the emergency food outlet to help stock the shelves during the lull that usually arrives in the new year.
“They must know what we know. Our demand is going up so quickly. In two years we went from 900 to 1,400 users,” Pitkanen said. “Every day we get five to six more clients. And the city of Thunder Bay is responding. It’s incredible. Merry Christmas to everybody.”
Ken Koza, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 966, helped organize the Thunder Bay Transit drive and said they couldn’t believe how much food they managed to collect.
“It was absolutely phenomenal. I cannot get over how generous everyone was this year,” Koza said.
It says a lot about the people of Thunder Bay, that even with food bank on the rise, transit workers could still manage to set a new record food collection total.
“People are going through a lot of tough times right now, and the fact there are people who would just come out with a can of beans, they know there is a need out there and they’re willing to do whatever they can to support this,” Koza said. “It was excellent.”
The Thunder Bay Food Bank is only open six days a month.
Clients are allowed a single shopping trip each month, the goal of the facility to provide emergency food and other household supplies, such as diapers, to tide them over for three days.
