Photo: Contributed

Firefighters in Lake Country will be at Save-On-Foods and IGA Sunday, accepting donations of cash, cheques or gift certificates in support of the Lake Country Food Bank.

From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., fire crews will be taking the donations, which will help families in the community this holiday season

“Our members love participating in the annual door-to-door campaign to collect donations for the Lake Country Food Bank,” said Deputy Chief Brent Penner.

“But COVID-19 has changed things a lot the past two years, so we’ve adapted our collection drive to raise awareness about ways to support families in our community through the Food Bank in a different way. We’ll be at the local grocery stores on Sunday with fire trucks to draw attention to the opportunity to give, and to accept donations in a different form than the usual cans and dry goods.”

The Food Bank has a limited amount of space for storage and volunteers to sort the donations, but they’ve had more people in need register for support this month.

The Lake Country firefighters typically support the RCMP Cram the Cruiser event, but that has changed as well and this year the RCMP campaign has focused on donations of toys and gifts for children and teens, asking that they be dropped off at the RCMP station by Dec. 10.

The firefighters are accepting donations of gift certificates from local businesses, coffee shops and stores, and they're encouraging residents to think about providing a gift card for something a local teen might appreciate this Christmas.

The Lake Country Rotary Club has a bulk purchase arrangement with Save-On Foods on their gift cards, so any of the Save-On gift cards purchased through the Rotary Club members gives an immediate 8% directly to the Lake Country Food Bank.

For a limited time, donations are being matched by a gracious benefactor as well, so 16 per cent of the value of the GC goes to support Food Bank clients. The gift cards can be used to buy your own groceries at any time, or can also be given as gifts or given as a donation. The firefighters and Rotary Club representatives will be on site at Save-On Foods Sunday to explain the program, sell the GCs and accept donations.

IGA also has a $10 and $20 bag of “Set the Christmas Table” themed goods available for purchase in the store, and they arrange for the contents and transportation of the bags to the Food Bank based on the Christmas Hamper distribution schedule for community members in need. Citizens can donate towards the bags in the store but don’t have to worry about carrying it around or dropping it off. Financial donations can also be made directly by clicking here.