It’s a sad reality that we hear every year during the Calendar Campaign, the number of people having to rely on the food bank to make it through the month is on the rise.
Dan Huang-Taylor is the executive director of Food Banks BC and says he has seen a troubling trend in the results from the Hunger Count.
“This most recent hunger count report showed us that there’s been 101 per cent increase in the number of visits to food bank since 2019 in rural communities and a 50 per cent increase in that same timespan across the province,” said Huang-Taylor.
“This has been a steadily increasing trend of increased demand in more people visiting food bank than we’ve ever seen in 40 years that they’ve operated in B.C.”
Huang-Taylor predicts that those numbers aren’t going to go down any time soon.
“We don’t see any reason for immediate optimism the cost of goods and the cost-of-living is still very high. It’s still out of reach for so many people,” said Huang- Taylor. “We have to ensure that we are working very closely with all levels of government to make the living situation better for people who are on fixed incomes.”
That’s where fundraising efforts like Global Okanagan’s Calendar Campaign are more important than ever to help food banks meet an infinitely growing need.
Thanks to our viewers and our sponsors Source Graphics Print Co. Ltd. and our title sponsor Valley First Credit Union, 100 per cent of viewers’ donations go to the food bank of their choice.
“We love the Calendar Campaign, and we’re very proud of where we live it’s a great Christmas gift as well to hand out,” said Valley First Credit Union president, Simon Mills. “It’s a great opportunity for us to be out in the community and sell as many calendars as we can.”
To pull off the Calendar Campaign every year, it takes a lot of work behind the scenes. Executive assistant at Global Okanagan, Joy Winterlik, takes on the lion’s share of the work.
“It starts in about February just going through the literally thousands of photos that our viewer sent to us and just trying to pare it down to the best photos that we can find for each month that show our valley from one end to the other,” said Winterlik.
Winterlik also organizes our annual road trip stops at locations throughout the valley and does all of the accounting to make sure your donation is delivered to the food bank of your choice. Sadly, this is her last year on the Calendar Campaign because she is retiring at the end of the year.
“It’s been fun. I’ve been doing it since we were doing the Good News Bears, and then we just rolled into the calendars after 25 years of bears and didn’t miss a beat,” said Winterlik.
The team at Global Okanagan are so grateful for all of our viewers who donate so generously year after year to our Calendar Campaign, in nine years we have raised $780,000 for local food banks and we hope to send Winterlik off with another record-breaking fundraising year.
The funds raised are more important than ever as food banks work to meet the constantly growing need. Executive director of the Lake Country Food Bank, Joy Haxton has extended the food bank’s hours and added another day to its schedule. in addition to creating six community fridges they keep stocked to bridge the gap between service days while they brace for what Haxton predicts will be another spike in demand when mortgages are renewed.
This is going to be the first year we are actually asking for help and we are asking for funds,” said Haxton.
“As much as we are extremely grateful when we get food donations we don’t have the storage, we don’t have the space. So if it’s at all possible cash donations go much further and it allows us to select the food that we need and we aren’t dealing with outdated food.”
Food banks around the valley are pressed to meet an ever-growing demand and the Central Okanagan Food Bank is not immune to that pressure.
Trina Speiser, director of development at the Central Okanagan Food Bank says that the C.O.F.B is at maximum capacity, servicing approximately 130 households a day. As volunteers manage a long list of clients, they are also bracing for a busy Christmas season.
“We’re feeling it for sure, we are preparing for 4,000 Christmas hampers this Christmas, which will translate to about 8500 people, definitely high numbers, about 32 per cent increase over the last year,” said Speiser.
The stress of keeping up with the growing demand is echoed by Neil Thompson at the Vernon Salvation Army.
This year alone they have supported more than 1,100 and now they are preparing for Christmas hampers and their toy room where they make sure that hundreds of children have something under the tree at Christmas.
“The reality is no one grows up wanting to have to use the food bank but life throws us curveballs and when it throws us curveballs we need support, and we are happy to be that support to not just give them a handout but give them a hand up,” said Thompson.
In the South Okanagan, Paul Trickett of the Penticton Salvation Army says that they are giving up 50,000 pounds of food a month.
“We’re averaging around 24 per cent up from last year now we will know a better number after Christmas because that’s where we see it all,” said Trickett. “What we are seeing though is daily we are giving out upwards of 200 plus bags of food a day and that’s not including our family hampers which could be 20 plus hampers a day as well.”
To support food banks as they continue to work to put nutritious meals on the tables of those in need you can donate to Global Okanagan’s Food Bank Fundraising Calendar Campaign, you can donate over the phone, by mail or online until Dec. 31. To make a donation visit www.globalnews.ca/okanagan