Thanksgiving weekend is just a week away and while many of us are planning out our turkey dinners and pumpkin pies, there are many Londoners who won’t be sitting down to a Thanksgiving feast.
That’s why the London Food Bank is launching its 29th annual Thanksgiving Food Drive. It officially kicks off Saturday, Sept. 30 and runs until Thanksgiving Monday.
The food bank’s co-executive director, Jane Roy, says it all started in 1988.
“The Thanksgiving Food Drive, in many ways, came around thanks to the folks at Westmount Shopping Centre years and years ago. It was something they had wanted to do, in terms of getting a food drive going, and Thanksgiving, of course, is an amazing time for people to give back. We call it the start of the giving season, it’s a time when people start thinking about helping others.”
Roy says they help between 3,400 and 3,500 families every month on top of the other Londoners who receive food provided by the food bank through other local agencies.
She hopes residents are able to help others in need.
Last year’s Thanksgiving drive collected a little more than 87,000 pounds of food, 60 per cent of which was distributed to other local agencies.