Penticton's tenth annual Thanksgiving Food Drive needs contributions

Photo: Casey Richardson

The Salvation Army began packing boxes early this year

The tenth annual Thanksgiving food drive is underway in Penticton, with a donation deadline by the end of the month.

Usually residents in Penticton have IGA grocery bags dropped off at their doorstep and picked up again later. But this year COVID-19 has changed the routine, and volunteers are dropping off door hangers to encourage people to give to the Penticton Salvation Army Food Bank directly.

“We haven't completed the city 100 per cent yet, but we're probably more than halfway through," said Dan Kane, chairperson for the Penticton chapter of the B.C. Thanksgiving Food Drive. "We're dropping door hangers off on people's doors, asking them to make a financial donation. Or if they want to they can take food down to the food bank themselves."

Door hangers will be placed on about 12,000 doors around town, asking for financial contribution or to drop off food items themselves at the food bank’s 2399 South Main St. building.

“The only thing that's made it, quite frankly, a little bit less complicated this year because the teams we mobilize only have to go out and do one route,” Kane said. 

“COVID has created a need for food in the food banks [which] is way up. The decision making process of what are we going to do, how are we going to handle this, that really didn't get finalized until basically pretty early- to mid-august,” Kane said. “We would've started planning in May, early May.”

Cash donations will be used to purchase food for the food bank, and every dollar donated translates into approximately three dollars worth of food.

“Because it's the tenth year, the BC food drive is encouraging people to donate at least ten dollars each, more if they are able to, in commemoration of ten years," Kane said. 

More information on donation can be found online at www.pentictonsa.ca/give

Photo: BCTFD