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You can help the Kamloops Food Bank win $20,000

Food bank could win $20k

The Kamloops Food Bank is participating in this year's Great Canadian Giving Challenge.

For the month of June, every dollar donated to a Canadian charity through CanadaHelps.org gives them a chance to win $20,000. 

The local non-profit will be one of thousands of charities competing for the coveted prize.

"It would just mean so much," Corra Gassner, office and events coordinator at the Kamloops Food Bank, tells Castanet. "It would be such a huge impact in helping support our community through COVID-19 and into the future. We would be using that $20,000 to purchase food and other much-needed items to support our community, a variety of groups and individuals, all of which access the food bank."

Gassner says staff are anticipating an uptick in the number of clients accessing the food bank during the pandemic. 

Before COVID-19, the food bank served around 7,000 individuals every year, she says.

Food remains the biggest need, Gassner adds.

In April, Kamloops Rotarians held their annual spring food drive and collected 70,000 pounds of food (a record). 

"We had an amazing food drive; really, really great results and that’s going to sustain us for a while but we need food and it’s hard to purchase," Gassner says. "We do purchase a lot of the food here at the food bank and we’re just noticing it’s tricky to get those quantities that we usually do."

The pandemic is also forcing the food bank to think about different fundraising initiatives, ones that fall within provincial social distancing guidelines.

"We’re looking even into the winter and what our November Basics for Babies is going to look like and (the) CP Holiday Train. We kind of have to look and plan that far ahead."

To donate to the Kamloops Food Bank, via CanadaHelps.org, click here.



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