The Edmonton Transit Service has teamed up with Edmonton’s Food Bank for the city’s annual Stuff a Bus campaign — set to officially launch on Wednesday for its 25th year, a significant milestone for the event.
“We are hoping it’s going to be our biggest year yet,” said Eddie Robar with ETS. “Twenty-five years is nothing to be short of happy about and proud about.
“It’s been getting bigger and better every year.”
Over the past 25 years, the donation drive has resulted in over 500,000 kg of food being stuffed into buses by Edmontonians for those in need.
All the donations go directly to the food bank. This year, officials say there’s been an increased need for food hampers over the past several months.
“We can’t really explain why there was all of a sudden a higher need, in October and November, all of a sudden there was more need,” said Carly Kincaid Williams with Edmonton’s Food Bank.
Get daily National news
“Because of that, more people are going to need to donate food, more people are going to need to give funds, and we need to be there for them.”
Fifteen buses will be at Save-On-Foods locations across the city collecting the donations from Wednesday, Nov. 27 until Saturday, Nov. 30.
The goal this year is 370 lbs of food and $2 million in cash donations.
“You make a donation and it goes straight to your neighbours,” said Kincaid Williams. “Hunger doesn’t discriminate.”
People interested in donating can find a map of the bus locations on the official website.
High-demand items include pasta, pasta sauce, mac and cheese, peanut butter and soup.
Online cash donations can also be made directly to Edmonton’s Food Bank online, by selecting option 3.
This year also marks the fifth year the drive has included ‘Stuff a Train’ as part of the initiative, with an LRT train collecting donations at the Clareview LRT Station on Saturday, Nov. 30, and then again for a big wrap-up donation push at the Southgate LRT Station on Sunday, Dec. 1.
Comments