The Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto is struggling this holiday season as the agency said it’s short 900,000 pounds of food.
The holiday drive started at the end of November with the goal of collecting 1,500,000 pounds of food by the end of the year.
“We’re only at about 600,000 pounds, so we have a long way to go,” Daily Bread Food Bank executive director Gail Nyberg said, adding the organization is also short in monetary donations.
She couldn’t give a reason for the decline, but said this is the second straight year donations are down. Last year the food bank only raised 600,000 of its 1,000,000 pound goal.
“We’ll have to purchase more food and that puts a strain on the food budget because we try and make that last all year and really we need it for the summer when donations are really non-existent,” Nyberg said.
Daily Bread Food Bank provides over 60,000 food hampers each month and supports more than 100 agencies.
With a looming deadline, it’s asking for both financial and non-perishable food donations. The Daily Bread Food Bank also needs baby products and high-protein products such as canned fish, meats and vegetables.
“Think about what your family would enjoy (and) chances are another family will as well,” Nyberg said.
Donations can be made at participating grocery stores and fire halls, or online.