As the demand for food banks spikes during the coronavirus pandemic, rotary clubs across the Central Okanagan are offering some financial relief.
“Rotarians all throughout the Central Okanagan said we need to do more for the food banks, and a call went around, and they stepped up big time,” rotary district governor Peter Schultz said.
Rotary clubs are donating $116,300 to local food banks in need.
Funds will be directed to the Central Okanagan Food Bank, the Kelowna Salvation Army, the Peachland Food Bank, the West Kelowna Salvation Army and Lake Country Food Bank, according to a news release.
The Central Okanagan Food Bank is currently seeing demand increase by nearly 30 per cent, spokesperson Tammie Watson said.
“Lots of families, lots of children coming through our doors and lots of seniors,” she said.
“Often times we’re looking at people who never thought in a million years that they would come to us,” Watson added.
“So we’re dealing quite frankly with people who are having to struggle with coming to that reality, having to reach out to us.”
Watson said non-perishable food donations to the Central Okanagan Food Bank are down.
“We’ve had pre-scheduled fundraising events that had to be cancelled because of the coronavirus,” she added.
Kelowna-Lake Country Salvation Army executive director Darryl Burry said the donation will go a long way towards helping food banks meet the need during the pandemic.
“When we looked at a year over year comparison, the month of March alone saw a 73 per cent increase in families and households accessing our services,” he said.
“So when we think back to December, when it’s our big time for food drives, typically the food that we gather in that season will last us well into the summer months.”
“That food is basically gone,” he added. “It’s donations like these from groups and organizations and businesses that care that make it possible for us to meet this ever-increasing growing demand.”